Review: Dreams to Ashes by Livia Blackburne & Nicole Xu

I don't usually read a lot of picture books. But this one I had to read, as I adore Livia. And it sounded like such an important story and looked gorgeous as well. It was such a fast and easy read. I'm giving this four stars, as I really liked it, but I do wish it had been a little longer. 

As I wanted more details and more history. But I really enjoyed this picture book. It was beautifully illustrated. It's written by Livia Blackburne and illustrated by Nicole Xu. I think they did an excellent job. And the book was beautiful and sad, telling an important piece of history.

This picture book is about what happened during the 1871 Los Angeles Chinatown Massacre. A story about what happened and how 18 Chinese men were killed. It was such a sad tale. New to me, but so interesting to read about. These men came to America with a dream of finding gold to take home to their families in China. They wanted all their lives to get better. Instead there were no gold. And they had to find other jobs to survive in this new country. These immigrants were not treated nicely. And then many of them were killed. I do wish there had been more about it all. But I liked what was included. The punishments at the end bothered me. Typical American, of course. But so evil.

It took me less than fifteen minutes to read this book. Which is why I wish it had been longer. I would not have minded even more details about everything. But even so. Dreams to Ashes was a stunning picture book that told an important story. I had not heard of this massacre before. Heartbreaking to learn about. And it is still heartbreaking, how immigrants are treated in America. I'm still waiting for things to get better. I think everyone should read this picture book and learn about the history of this massacre. It's important.

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