Any Day With You by Mar Respicio

Synopsis:

A warm, tender story about a creative girl who hopes that by winning a filmmaking contest, she’ll convince her great-granfather not to move back home to the Philippines. For fans of Erin Entrada Kelly and Kelly Yang.

Kaia and her family live near the beach in California, where the fun moviemaking is all around them. Kaia loves playing with makeup and creating special effects, turning her friends into merfolk and other magical creatures.

This summer, Kaia and her friends are part of a creative arts camp, where they’re working on a short movie to enter in a contest. The movie is inspired by the Filipino folktales that her beloved Tatang, her great-grandfather, tells. When Tatang decides that it is time to return to his homeland in the Philippines, Kaia will do anything to convince him not to go.

Any Day With You follows Kaia as she frantically finds ways to keep her Tatang - her great-grandfather - here in Santa Monica. The story starts in summer holiday, at an area Kaia and her family enjoys their time in very frequently, the beach near their home. Kaia lives with her parents, her elder sister Lainey (Elena), her younger brother Toby, and her Tatang. Her Uncle Roy on her mother side visits them often too. Being in a close-knit family, she begins to struggle when her sister leaves to study in Philippines, where her Tatang’s home is.

What’s worse, is that her Tatang and Lainey has made plans to meet each other in Philippines during her Tatang’s annual Philippines trip. Now not only is she feeling lonely, she feels left out too. Coupled with her Tatang’s boasting Lainey’s accomplishment to his friends, and many people complimenting her sister, Kaia feels as if she isn’t as talented, or good enough, for Tatang to be proud of her.

As summer holidays start, Kaia planned a wide variety of things to enjoy with her Tatang, to have him for herself now that Lainey is in Philippines. However, her enthusiasm was cut short by her Tatang’s announcement. He’s going to leave for Philippines permanently, and to live his remaining days at home there.

Kaia wanted to make her Tatang proud by winning a filmmaking competition. But with this latest news, making her Tatang proud has now become an attempt to show her great-grandfather how much she needed him, and how important it is for him to stay here, with her.

What I love about this story is the prose. It isn’t beautiful, or poetically written, yet it is realistic and very believable. The thought processes and unfathomable leaps of logic that children tend to make when they’re distressed are the kinds that I make when I was a child, and I relate to that so strongly. Look at this scene: “Tatang points, throws his head back, and laughs. It’s one of my favourite sounds because he uses his entire face, body, and soul, and it makes everyone else laugh, too, like a domino effect. Mom calls it pure happiness.”

There was a scene that confused me, and it was when Kaia went into a booth called Psychic Cat. Nothing much happened except telling us that Kaia had no idea what she wished for. That scene seemed redundant to me, and I initially ignored it because, let’s face it, how many times have we come across a scene in a book that has no bearing on the outcomes whatsoever? I filed my confusion away and continued the story. But some chapter later, and Kaia finds her way back to this stall, and you have no idea how excited I was to have this particular portion somewhat explained. I still didn’t much get it…but I was relieved for the semi-closure.

What I also enjoy is the amount of information just naturally, and in a very well-thought-out way, inserted into the events happening in the story. I can definitely say I know more about Filipino myths and folktales after reading this book. I also learnt how similar Filipino culture is to Chinese culture.

As a Singaporean, American history isn’t my strong suit, (not that Singaporean history is at all >.< ), so the sacrifices I read about in this story regarding the Filipino soldiers who contributed and fought valiantly in WWII is new and an interesting piece of information. And such information, I feel, would prompt readers to ask questions. To ask about their elders, their grand-parents and their lives before they were born. It could open up to so many stories and so much information! Stories passed down have always been valuable and treasured, and I believe that’s true wherever we are!

The start of the book was sunshine and happiness, the whole family were close and was mostly positive is the way they treat each other. But there were moments where I felt the Respicio has given me a sense of foreboding. For example, she described the family’s day at the beach, and at the end of that scene, she ended with the sentence: “I see sunshine everwhere I turn.” Then a couple of chapters later, when they received Tatang from the airport after his trip to Hawaii, Respicio again ended that scene with “I feel good things ahead.” I might be too sensitive, or just a pessimist, but I just knew Kaia will receive bad news soon because of the emphasis on her bright expectations for the summer holidays.

And lo and behold, her Tatang announced his intention to move to the Philippines. The intensity of Kaia’s upset was unexpected however, but it could be because of how my grandparents and I were never that close.

The ending wasn’t predictable in some ways, but entirely predictable in the way that most books for children have to convey some sort of message, and in this sort of story, you can only convey it this way. The emphasis on stories passed down, on asking questions, and on understanding the choices others make is heartwarming and inspirational. What’s better though, is the changes the rest of the family made to their plans to come and support Kaia and her film she made throughout the stories.

All in all, the ratings are:

3.5/5