Pham Quang Phuc's The Garden of Us makes the BRAW 2026 list
Pham Quang Phuc’s The Garden of Us, as Khu Vườn Trong Tim Ta, has been selected for the list of 150 outstanding books by The BRAW Amazing Bookshelf 2026. This is the first Vietnamese children's book to be included in this list – a truly beautiful and touching milestone for Quang Phuc.
Although this story was started back in 2016, it wasn’t finished until the Autumn of 2021, following one of the most challenging times of Quang Phuc’s life after a 5 month lockdown during COVID-19. Then in 2022 it made it into the top 100 unpublished books of dPictus and made its way to Bologna. Finally in 2025, Crabit Kidbooks saw the potential of Quang Phuc’s story and decided to publish it.
What started as a personal project close to his heart and gift to his mother turned into a journey of healing. He hopes that through his story those who have the chance to read it will find comfort and warmth in a particular situation in their life.
He shared a few words about his inspiration and motivation to create this story:
“I had the idea for this book many years ago, but I did not finish it until Autumn 2021. That was the hardest time in my life. My city was under lockdown for more than 5 months, and everybody had to stay at home. I saw many people, especially the elderly, taken to hospital after testing positive for COVID-19. In some cases, their families could not see them one last time. Some children never saw their grandparents again, and some parents could not explain why they never came home. Seeing so many stories like these made me want to finish my book.
Not only during COVID-19, people can feel lost when they lose loved ones and cannot say goodbye. I remember when my great-grandmother passed away when I was six years old, my mom felt sad for months. I realize I felt sad because I did not understand what happened, but maybe my mom felt even sadder because she could not meet her grandmother again or say what she wanted to say. I hope this book can share that sadness and help children understand that, in difficult times, they and their parents experience the same shock and grief, and that it is important to accept those feelings together and move on.
This book is not a big idea or a special story, but it is a story I want to tell and share. The characters are based on my family. I hope that when someone feels sad or loses somebody, they can find some reasons to make themselves feel better.
My personal books often take a long time to create and are born from memorable circumstances, carrying with them a lot of my thoughts and feelings because they are meticulously crafted.”
If you’d like to work with Quang Phuc, please contact: [email protected]
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