Me and Mr. Mah

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

Ian, a young boy, sits down in his backyard and opens a battered shoe
box that is stuffed with hay, a toy tractor, and a few small cow bones.
He is very lonely. Ian’s parents have just separated, and he and his
mother have had to go to live in the city, leaving the prairie farm
where he grew up. Ian greatly misses his dad and the life he once knew.
The shoe box and its contents are his only link to his former life.

Through a hole in his yard fence, Ian sees a very old Chinese man named
Mr. Wah. It turns out that Ian and his neighbor have much in common.
Both are lonely, both love to work in the garden, and both have small
boxes of keepsakes to remember their old ways. A strong friendship
develops between Mr. Wah and young Ian. The friendship endures even
after Ian’s mother buys a house on the other side of town and Ian has
to say goodbye to both Mr. Wah and the gardens they created together.

This lovely story, told in the first person, is a bittersweet tale
about how people survive upheaval and change in their lives by linking
their past to their future. Janet Wilson’s beautiful picture panels,
which are dominated by huge nodding sunflowers and swirling earth tones,
perfectly complement Andrea Spalding’s gentle prose. Recommended.