Remember that place?

★ The latest picture book by Ali Ginger, an illustrator selected for the Bologna Children's Book Fair and the American 3x3 Illustration Show, following "To the Far Away: Impressions of Santa Fe"!
★ Depicting the landscape with vibrant colors and delicate brushstrokes, showcasing memories of life intertwined with humanities and nature.
★ A romantic love letter dedicated to hometown, commemorating the deceased, reminiscing about the past, and about "memory" and "emotion."
★ Chuan Bei Mu, Li Tonghao, Sun Ziping, Xia Xia - personally recommend!

☆☆ "The alley next to the ancestral home, the mottled windows, the light shining from inside the house, occasionally appearing and disappearing like bubbles.
Me, who once fell into a smelly ditch, my grandpa sitting quietly at the entrance, my grandma bustling through the shop,
The lively temple festival parades, and my mother who brought us back home year after year...
After dinner, sitting together in front of the TV watching Taiwanese opera, those nights felt like time itself." ☆☆

Illustrator Ali Ginger, whose works were selected for the "Bologna International Children's Book Illustrators Exhibition" and won "Excellent Award in the American 3x3 International Illustration Show," follows her beloved 2021 graphic travelogue "To the Far Away: Impressions of Santa Fe," which chronicled her three months as an artist-in-residence in New Mexico. After four years of brewing and meticulous refinement, she has created this picture book – "Remember That Place."

"That year, I came to the countryside.
There was wind. There were rice paddies. There was a scent I had never smelled before.
Walking into that green expanse, that was the smell of rice."

The paintings in her previous work, "To the Far Away: Impressions of Santa Fe," displayed a powerful sense of vastness. Through Ali Ginger's brush and eyes, we seemed to see the expansive and rugged landscapes of Santa Fe with her. This time, Ali Ginger turns her gaze and creativity back to herself and this land. "Remember That Place" was born from the author's seven years of living in the central Taiwanese countryside.

Moving from the metropolis of Taipei, where she had lived for many years, to a rural town in central Taiwan, Ali Ginger absorbed and experienced everything about her new surroundings with the unique sensitivity and perspective of a visual artist. She looked around with childlike curiosity, breathed deeply, wandered everywhere, observed people, experienced various everyday activities, and captured the year-by-year changes in the environment—all these accumulated details, after countless internal ruminations and chewings, transformed into intuitive light and shadow, colors, layered brushstrokes, many small, charming people and landscapes... culminating in this refreshing and heartwarming beautiful picture book.

"The wind blows softly.
We sit, doing nothing.
We listen to cicadas, listen to birds sing.
The dog runs over, then runs away.
We laugh. The trees laugh too."

Opening this book, we seem to follow the little person with the wide-brimmed hat, depicted by Ali Ginger, sometimes wandering through fields, mountains, streams, and coasts, sometimes entering crowds, docks, markets, and communities, or resting under a big tree by a local temple. As we turn the pages, memories and life experiences, accompanied by sensory and emotional feelings, are often touched deep within our hearts. As writer Li Tonghao stated: "...the pages sparkle, it's impossible not to recall summer vacations at grandma's house, or moments from a family trip."

Compared to the detailed illustrations, Ali Ginger prefers to write short, poetic sentences to accompany them, creating a perfect balance and harmony between image and text. This allows readers to feel the author's pure and bright heart, like that of a child.

"Memories are like starlight, so distant.
I reach out to grasp them, but cannot.
Homesickness gently arrives, accompanying me to watch the moon."

"Remember That Place" is a picture book suitable for anyone who wants to wander, wants to go home, wants to go somewhere, or wants to leave somewhere, to quietly appreciate and savor. Ali Ginger combines hand-drawn and digital collage techniques, using whimsical yet somewhat impressionistic brushstrokes to capture the details and tranquility of suburban and rural life. This book is not just a graphic picture book, but also a gentle reminder: in the torrent of rapid development and construction, can we still reserve a place for the land, memories, and human touch? That place, interwoven with nature, childhood, and emotions, deserves to be remembered and protected.

☆☆ "During my seven years of living in the countryside, I am grateful for all the local customs and people I encountered, and also for the tenderness and tranquility bestowed upon me by nature. Those people, those scenes, those delicate fragments, may eventually fade from reality, but as long as I choose to remember, they will live forever – in the pages of a book, in my heart, existing quietly and resiliently." – Ali Ginger ☆☆

Heartfelt Recommendations from Celebrities

★ "The past and present overlap, becoming a mottled dream of the countryside. The tiny figures seem to move furtively in the distance, like an unintentional pang of homesickness." — Chuan Bei Mu (Illustrator)

★ "When you're feeling jaded, please pick up this picture book. The swaying rice fields in the wind, the sparkling streams, the lively temple fairs—the pages shimmer, making it impossible not to recall summer vacations at grandma's house, or moments from a family trip. It reminds us that there's still a soft corner in our hearts that hasn't been forgotten, and perhaps those memories are why this chaotic world is still worth staying in." — Li Tonghao (Writer)

★ "Stepping into that green expanse, sometimes observing from a distance, sometimes watching steadily from one spot, the senses immersed in sounds and colors. The narrator within the frame, rather than Ali Ginger, is more accurately time itself. When time speaks, the fragrant, new local customs, like poetry, inevitably reveal the erosion and alteration of time's patina. There's a time and space called 'once upon a time,' and a premonition called 'sorrow.' It's then that we realize everything is speaking, and unspoken confessions, like wishes that ultimately fail, are always remembered by those who don't easily let go." — Sun Ziping (Writer)

★ "Ali Ginger's paintings are always so vibrant, lively, and overflowing, full of surprises and details, yet without compromising their inherent tranquility. She makes every character equal, equally important, equally telling a story. This is a work that brings together childhood, and even more so, Taiwanese culture and emotions." — Xia Xia (Writer)