Review: Yellow Singing Sail: A Memoir of an Only Child in China

Yellow Singing Sail: A Memoir of an Only Child in China

Author and illustrator: Yinfan Huang

Kids Can Press, 2025

ISBN: 9781525305511 (paperback)
9781525308116 (EPUB)

$18.99 CAD (paperback)
$12.99 CAD (EPUB)

184 pages

Ages: 10 to 14 years old

Simple and touching, Yinfan Huang’s Yellow Singing Sail is a graphic novel and memoir about growing up as a young girl during the one-child era of China. The storytelling style is very direct as she recounts her childhood, paired with an art style reminiscent of a young child’s artwork. This graphic novel is dense with themes of growing up, loneliness, and friends and family. Set in 1990s China, the cultural influences add an undercurrent of sociopolitical themes. Personally, this memoir lacks a reflective element that I desire from autobiographies, as the author opts to recount the events of her childhood with little to no input as an adult looking back. However, this offers a great opportunity for discussion and deeper analysis with young readers. The language and comic style are very accessible, so children as young as eight could pick up this title, but some of the themes are better-suited for middle school-aged children.