Navigating Night by Angie Kang, Julie Leung
on March 10, 2026
ISBN: 0593897692
Genres: Emotions & Feelings, Family, Family Life, Immigrants
Format: Picture Book Fiction
Goodreads

“I don’t want to be a good kid. I want to be a normal kid.” So says the narrator of Navigating Night, a picture book based on author Julie Leung’s own childhood experience. Against the backdrop of a rainy night, evocatively illustrated by Angie Kang, a Chinese girl helps her father make deliveries for their restaurant. Translating and navigating, she finds herself encountering those who are kind, those who are not, and those who make her feel envious and awkward. When she challenges her father that she wants to be like other kids rather than help him, he responds by gently telling her of his own journey from danger, navigating a new home, sent by his family to begin a new life when he was just a boy.

Navigating Night conveys the frustration every child feels when conflicted between pride in who they are, and the need to blend in. It also points out the frustration experienced by children of immigrants who must function as adults as they assist their parents, while longing to be a “normal kid.” Recommended for elementary classrooms, public libraries, and any who want to take a brief journey in the shoes (or car) of a child learning to navigate her own way home.

Reviewed by Beth Almquist, Lewiston Public Library