Angie Kang’s 2025 picture book Our Lake is rare, focused, and moving.
The book’s action is simple: two brothers walk to a lake and jump in.
The book’s meaning is profound: one brother guides another brother (larger and one assumes older brother guiding smaller and one assumes younger). On the way the guiding brother talks a little about what the hike is like. Once there, they strip off shirts and stretch a little, then the guiding brother jumps in.
This leaves the smaller brother first watching the larger, then lost in self-doubt about how far away the water is. Then, in a shift of colors, remembering what coming here was like when their father was there and came with them. He replays the joyous sight of his father diving in, then jumps in.
As he knifes through the air, just when he approaches the lake, he sees his father. They meet in the moment of the splash. The guiding brother praises him for jumping, and smaller brother is overcoming with gratitude and emotion. Speechless, he hugs his brother, and knows their father is there with them.
This book is as much about what we don’t say, and can’t say, as what we do. The boys don’t say their father is dead, but his absence (and the smaller boy’s doubt) makes their loss clear. The lake is a literal lake, but it is also a deep pool of symbolism.
Kang’s illustrations fill the page with color, and communicate the shift between outer and inner, present and past, well.
Lovely and solemn. A good book for all kids, but especially those dealing with loss.
It is easy to see why this book was a 2026 Caldecott Honor Book.
