What makes the place we live feel like home? This is a warm-hearted and lush picture book about family, the immigrant experience and how a simple garden can foster a connection to the larger natural world.

When a young girl and her mother go to visit her family, the girl notices a change. At home, her mother mostly stays inside. Here, her mother likes to explore and go hiking. The girl has never seen her so happy! Her mother tells her about the trees, bushes, flowers and birds. Did you know that tree roots make mountains strong? And that ài hāo (mugwort) is used to make delicious, sweet dumplings?

But her mother's smile goes away when they return home. It's cold and she doesn't want to go outside. She goes back to wearing her big quilted jackets and watering her houseplants.

How can the girl show her mother that nature here can be wondrous too? (Tundra Books)

Jessica J. Lee is a British Canadian Taiwanese writer and environmental historian. She is best known for her memoir, Turning and her genre-defying book Two Trees Make a Forest, which won the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction in 2020 and was championed by singer-songwriter Scott Helman on Canada Reads in 2021.

Elaine Chen is a Chinese Canadian illustrator currently based in Vancouver.