Astrid and Apollo and the Super Staycation Read online

  To Mom & Dad, grateful for the many vacations we had together —VTB

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Meet Astrid & Apollo

  Chapter 1: Oh No!

  Chapter 2: Fifty Years

  Chapter 3: Brainstorming

  Chapter 4: Human Paintbrush

  Chapter 5: Staycation Surprise!

  Facts about the Hmong

  Glossary

  Talk about It

  Write it Down

  About the Author

  About the Illustrator

  Copyright

  Back Cover

  Cover

  Title Page

  Table of Contents

  Start of Content

  Main Body

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  2b

  back cover

  Meet Astrid & Apollo

  Hi, I’m Astrid. My twin brother is Apollo, and we were born in Minnesota. We live here with our mom, dad, and little sister, Eliana.

  Hi, I’m Apollo! Our mom and dad were both born in Laos. They came to the United States when they were very young and grew up here.

  Hmong Words

  gao (GOW) —

  girl; it is often placed in front of a girl’s name. Hmong spelling: nkauj

  Gao Chee (GOW chee) —

  shiny girl. Hmong spelling: Nkauj Ci

  Gao Hlee (GOW lee) —

  moon girl. Hmong spelling: Nkauj Hli

  Gao Nou (GOW new) —

  sun girl. Hmong spelling: Nkauj Hnub

  Hmong (MONG) —

  a group of people who came to the U.S. from Laos. Many Hmong from Laos now live in Minnesota. Hmong spelling: Hmoob

  Nia Thy (nee-YAH thy) —

  grandmother on the mother’s side. Hmong spelling: Niam Tais

  Nou Kou (NEW koo) —

  star. Hmong spelling: Hnub Qub

  tou (TOO) —

  boy or son; it is often placed in front of a boy’s name. Hmong spelling: tub

  CHAPTER 1

  Oh No!

  “Eliana, be careful with your paint!” said Astrid. “You are splashing red paint onto my green grass.”

  Apollo moved his painting away. “You’re getting it in my blue river too! The paint’s all over your hands.”

  Eliana made a face.

  “We are using paintbrushes, but you are supposed to be finger painting, not hand painting,” Astrid said.

  Their dog, Luna, sat near the newspaper covering the floor, watching them. Eliana shook her hands in the air.

  “Don’t get paint on Luna!” said Apollo.

  “Paint, paint, PAINT!” Eliana yelled.

  Her hands were covered in red paint. She had red fingerprints on her arms. Red handprints were splattered on her paint smock.

  Astrid and Apollo picked up their paintings and moved to the other side of the coffee table. Luna followed them.

  “Kids, why are you still painting? We’re leaving in two days. You should be packing!” Dad said. He was carrying a big suitcase down the stairs.

  “Dad, we finished packing yesterday,” said Astrid.

  “Don’t you remember? Look,” Apollo said.

  He pointed at the neat row of suitcases in the living room. One medium green suitcase for Apollo. One medium blue suitcase for Astrid. And one small purple suitcase for Eliana.

  “That’s right!” Dad said. “We’ve been so busy, I forgot. I still can’t believe we’re going back to Laos after all this time.”

  “Are you excited for the trip, Dad?” Astrid asked.

  Luna hurried over to Dad, and he picked her up.

  “Yes! It’s been many years since we left Laos. Your mom’s excited too. She’s looking forward to her cousin’s wedding. And she can’t wait to see her grandparents again.”

  “Me too!” Astrid and Apollo said at the same time.

  “Me too!” said Eliana. She made two fists and smacked them on top of her painting on the table. Splat!

  “Eliana, look what you did!” Apollo picked up Eliana’s painting. Bright red fist prints were now on the top of the white paper.

  “Eliana, can you please listen to Dad?” Astrid said. She turned to him. “Tell us your favorite thing about Laos, Dad.”

  “I was too young. I don’t remember a lot, but I know I miss the food. I miss the river by my house. I liked playing in that river.” Dad smiled.

  “Did you see any fish in there?” said Astrid.

  “I forget. Maybe,” Dad said.

  “Will you take us there?” Apollo asked.

  Dad nodded. “I don’t know if we can find that one, but we’ll try to visit as many rivers as we can.”

  Astrid and Apollo smiled at each other. “Yes!” they said together.

  “YES!” Eliana screamed.

  That’s when they heard Mom exclaim, “Oh no!”

  CHAPTER 2

  Fifty Years

  “What happened?” Apollo wondered out loud.

  Astrid and Apollo ran with Dad into the kitchen. Eliana and Luna followed them. They found Mom sitting at the table, staring at her computer.

  “What’s wrong?” Dad asked.

  Mom put her hand on her head. “Our trip to Laos is ruined! The airline delayed our flights.”

  “Why?” said Astrid.

  “We’re supposed to fly to California the day after tomorrow. From there, we fly to Japan, and then Laos. But there’s a very bad storm coming, so now our flights are delayed,” Mom said.

  “How long do we have to wait?” asked Apollo.

  “I’m not sure. But if we don’t leave on time, we’ll be late getting to Laos. That means we could miss the wedding!”

  Astrid moved closer to Mom. “Is there another flight we can take?”

  Mom pointed at her computer. On the screen was a map with a giant purple cloud covering the top part of the United States.

  “The storm is moving to all the big cities with airports. Then it will create more storms. I don’t think we’ll be able to fly anywhere for days,” she said.

  Astrid read the computer screen. “Worst storms in fifty years. Wow.”

  “Fifty years?” said Apollo.

  “Fif-tee ears?” echoed Eliana from across the room.

  Dad put his arm around Mom. “Don’t worry. We’ll figure it out,” he said.

  “Let me call the airline now and check.” Mom stood and picked up her phone.


  As she walked out of the room, Astrid and Apollo frowned.

  “Mom looks so worried and sad,” said Apollo.

  Astrid shook her head. “I don’t want her to be sad.”

  Dad sighed. “Let’s see what they say. Maybe the weather will get better, and everything will be okay.”

  “Oh-kay,” Eliana said and turned to Dad for a hug.

  “Don’t!” Astrid said, but it was too late. Dad’s sweater now had red handprints all over the front.

  When Mom got off the phone, she looked even sadder. “They said planes can’t fly for a couple of days. We have to wait until the storms clear. They don’t know when that will be.”

  “But we’ll still go, right?” said Apollo.

  “I don’t know. It’s a very bad storm. If we do go, we won’t make it to the wedding,” Mom said, shaking her head in disappointment.

  Astrid hugged Mom. “I’m sorry, Mom.”

  Mom kissed Astrid’s head. “Thank you, Astrid. I’m going to call my grandma now and let her know what’s happening.”

  After Mom left the room, Apollo said, “Dad, can we go to Laos even if we miss the wedding?”

  Dad read the news on the computer. “I’m not sure. We might have to cancel this trip.”

  “What?” Astrid said in surprise. “But why?”

  “It takes long to travel this far. Even if we leave a few days from now, once we get there, it will be almost time to come back. We won’t have enough time to enjoy our stay,” Dad explained.

  Apollo made a face. “But can’t we just stay longer?”

  “I wish we could, but Mom and I have to get back to work. We can’t take any more time off,” said Dad.

  Astrid sat down on a chair. “This is not good. Mom was so excited for this trip. She’s been planning it for a long time!”

  “You too, Dad! You were going to show us the rivers,” said Apollo.

  Dad shook his head. “This is very disappointing, but planes can’t fly in this weather. There’s nothing we can do. I’m sorry, kids.”

  Dad looked at the paint on his sweater and Eliana’s hands. “Let’s get cleaned up.” He and Eliana walked out of the kitchen.

  While Mom talked on the phone with her grandmother, Astrid and Apollo looked at photos spread out on the kitchen table.

  “Nia Thy brought these yesterday. She couldn’t take this trip with us, so she wanted to show us these pictures,” said Astrid.

  “I remember. She said they show Mom’s favorite things about Laos,” said Apollo.

  “Look at this field of red flowers,” Astrid said.

  Apollo nodded. “Mom says those are called poppy flowers. She played there with her sisters.”

  “Look at this one of her grandma and grandpa farming,” said Astrid. “Mom loves Nia Thy’s stories about farming. Just like Dad loves stories about his family farm.”

  Apollo passed her a picture. “Here’s Mom’s family eating. Looks yummy!”

  “See her grandma cooking behind them? She’s smashing something into a bowl,” said Astrid.

  Astrid and Apollo both grinned and said, “Papaya salad!”

  “Look here,” said Astrid. “Mom’s so small. She’s wearing cute red flip-flops. She talks about these shoes all the time.”

  “Dad had shoes like that too!” Apollo said.

  He pointed to a framed picture of Dad on the wall. It was taken when he was a little kid in Laos. He was wearing blue flip-flops.

  The twins smiled.

  Then Apollo put the pictures down. “I really hope we can still go on this trip. It will make Mom and Dad so happy.”

  Astrid rubbed at a drop of paint on her arm. “But in case we can’t go, we have to come up with a way to cheer them up.”

  Apollo nodded. “This was supposed to be a fun vacation. Now we have to stay home.”

  Astrid clapped her hands. “We can still have fun. We can have a staycation—a vacation at home!”

  Apollo’s eyes grew wide. “That’s right. We can take Mom and Dad to Laos, right here! We will surprise them.”

  “Staycation surprise!” they said and laughed.

  CHAPTER 3

  Brainstorming

  Astrid and Apollo got to work on their surprise right away.

  “First, let’s think about how to do the staycation. What can we do to make Mom and Dad feel like they’re in Laos?” said Apollo.

  “Let’s brainstorm,” Astrid said. She took a pencil and notepad from a drawer and wrote down WHAT M&D LOVE ABOUT LAOS.

  “We’ll make a list,” she said.

  “We know Dad likes rivers. Can you write down rivers?” asked Apollo.

  “Yes, and we know Mom loves the poppy fields with red flowers. I’ll write down poppy fields too,” Astrid said.

  Apollo sat down at the table. “Mom liked her grandparents’ stories about the farm. Dad liked the farm too. Can you add farming?”

  Astrid nodded. “Now we have three things. Do we need more?”

  Apollo looked at the pictures again. “Flip-flops! They both wore fun flip-flops.”

  “Yes! I will add flip-flops to the list. Anything else?” Astrid tapped the pencil to her chin.

  Apollo saw the picture of Mom eating. “What about food?”

  “They both love papaya salad,” Astrid said wrote that down. Then she read the whole list. “We have rivers, poppy fields, farming, flip-flops, and papaya salad. What do we do now?”

  They thought for a moment. Then Apollo looked at the paper that Eliana had slammed her fists down on.

  “Hey—Eliana’s red fist prints look like poppy flowers!” he said. “What if we make paintings of poppies? We can use green paint for the field. Then we can have Eliana make red fist prints for the flowers!”

  “Her fist prints do look like poppy flowers!” Astrid wrote HOW TO BRING LAOS HOME and wrote poppy field painting underneath it.

  “And we can paint a long river for Dad,” Apollo said.

  “He’ll like that!” Astrid wrote river painting on the list.

  “I know!” said Apollo. “For papaya salad, we can ask Auntie May to make some and bring it here. Her papaya salad’s the best!”

  “Good idea! But let’s not make it too spicy.” Astrid added papaya salad – NOT SPICY to the list.

  “What else?” said Apollo.

  Astrid said, “Auntie May lives close to Hmong Village. I can ask her and Lily to pick up flip-flops for all of us.”

  She wrote down flip-flops from Auntie May.

  “Great! Last of all, farming. What can we do for farming?” said Apollo.

  Astrid thought for a minute. “What if we ask Nia Thy and Uncle Meng to bring over Hmong farming tools?”

  Apollo nodded. “Yes! They have a lot of tools. We could ask them to bring fruits and vegetables too. This will remind Mom and Dad about Hmong farming.”

  “Yay!” said Astrid. She wrote farm tools, fruits and veggies.

  “Now let’s call everyone for help. Then tomorrow we can make the paintings,” said Astrid.

  Apollo nodded. “You want to call Auntie May and Lily? I’ll call Nia Thy and Uncle Meng.”

  “Okay!” said Astrid.

  After the twins had borrowed their parents’ phones, they handed them back.

  “Thank you for letting us play Boogies Bugs,” said Apollo, even though they hadn’t really played the game app. They had taken the phones to their rooms to make phone calls to their relatives.

  “Yes, that’s our favorite game,” said Astrid, trying not to smile so her parents wouldn’t suspect anything.

  But they were too busy looking at the computer to notice.

  “You’re welcome,” Dad murmured as he scratched his forehead.

  “Well, for sure we won’t be taking this trip, kids.” Mom sighed and pointed at the computer.

  Astrid and Apollo opened their eyes wide as they read the words on the screen: Flights around the world canceled for the next week.

  The next day, Mom and Dad unpacked the su
itcases.

  “We’ll be upstairs putting clothes away,” Dad said.

  “Can you stay up there for a while?” asked Apollo.

  Astrid thought fast to come up with an excuse. “We want to paint, and Mom doesn’t like the smell,” she explained.

  Mom nodded. “Open the windows a little and try not to make a mess.”

  As soon as they left, Apollo said, “Get ready, Eliana. You can make your red fist prints!”

  Eliana looked at her fists.

  “It’s okay. We want you to make red fist prints this time,” said Astrid.

  Eliana smiled. She swung her elbows and shook from side to side in a little happy dance.

  Apollo ripped off paper from his big painting pad. “Let’s do a lot of poppy flower paintings. I need paper for a river too. Is five pieces enough?”

  “Five is great. We can tape the pieces together.” Astrid handed him tape from their art supplies.

  Apollo said, “This will be a very long river!”

  “Long!” yelled Eliana.

  “Eliana, we have to be quiet.” Apollo put his finger to his lips. “Can you whisper?”

  “YES!” Eliana screamed.

  “Shh,” said Astrid. “We don’t want Mom and Dad to know about our surprise.”

  “Suh-pies!” Eliana whispered loudly as she jumped up and down.

  CHAPTER 4

  Human Paintbrush

  Astrid picked up a paintbrush and opened different green paints. She dipped the brush in the paint and painted tall grass in several shades of green. Then she painted long stems and leaves for the poppy flowers.

  “Your turn, Eliana,” she whispered and pointed to the top of the stems. “Remember when you put red paint on your hands? Do it again and press your fists here.”

  Eliana nodded happily.

  While Astrid and Eliana made the poppy flowers, Apollo painted a long, winding river. He used a big paintbrush and bright blue paint.

  He started at one end and painted across the paper. He wiggled his arm up and down so the water would be wavy like a real river.

  “This is long!” he said as he painted from one side of the paper to the other.

  “Maybe it’s the longest river in Laos!” said Astrid.