Key Selling Points:

• Author Julia Hune-Browne based this book on her grandmother, Gar Yin Hune. She first told this family story in a radio documentary for CBC Radio. Hune-Brown describes her grandmother as being bold, outspoken, funny, and brave. She wrote this story to show how proud she is to be Gar Yin Hune’s granddaughter.
• Poh Poh’s Sword is an immigration story, a story of feminist empowerment, and a story of connection between generations. A little girl learns about how determined her grandmother was when she was young, and how her Poh Poh found a way to provide for herself, escape a war, and make a life for herself in a very different and often hostile country.
• The picture book also sheds light on the history of anti-Asian racism in North America, particularly the restrictions on Chinese immigration and the exclusion of Chinese people/families in the 19th and 20th centuries. In her author's note, Hune-Browne talks about her grandmother's personal story as well as the greater story of Chinese immigration to North America, including the fact that Chinese male labourers greatly shaped both Canada and the USA by building railways across the continent, while paying unfair head taxes and facing laws designed to keep them from bringing their families to join them.
• Showing a family separated by circumstance, by war, and by racist laws is relatable today for many immigrant families.
• Julia Hune-Brown’s grandmother's story had always been one of family legends. But only by researching it as an adult did Hune-Brown realize how unique it really was. In 1938, thanks to her success in the Cantonese Opera, Gar Yin Hune came to Canada as a woman during a time when almost all Chinese immigration was banned. Because of the Chinese head tax and then the Chinese Exclusion Act, it was rare to see Chinese women in Canada. When Gar Yin Hune arrived, only seven per cent of the Chinese population in Canada were women.
• An accomplished theatre artist and educator, this is Toronto-based author Julia Hune-Brown’s first book.
• Hayley Lowe, based in Vancouver, brings Poh Poh's story to vibrant life with her illustrations of the cantonese opera and Poh Poh’s sword dancing. She has illustrated a number of books to great acclaim, including Second Story Press' Memory Stones (2025). She wrote and illustrated The Pie Reports (Orca, 2024) which received a starred review from School Library Journal.