Review of Happy Songkran Day!: The Thai New Year Celebration by Dow Phumiruk

*Happy Songkran Day!* by Dow Phumiruk (2026). Published by Viking Books for Young Readers.

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

This blog post is interesting to me because lately, I’ve been struggling to get in my reading time. I was working for the longest time as a freelancer and contractor, but recently pivoted to an 8-5 job where I’m in an office. It’s not hybrid, so I’m always at home trying to put the puzzle pieces together of how I’ll get my reading done. I also continue working on this blog when I’m not at work, so the Instagram reels I’m fed about a 5-9 feel too real right now.

Anyways, I am trying to find that time to read here and there. Somehow I’m still on track for my Goodreads goal, even though I’ve been slowly giving up on the notion of reading goals in life. I think they can be a little too much pressure and takes the fun off of reading at the end of the day, and I want to read because I want to stay in touch with literature while also pursuing my side career as a writer.

Every so often I get sent advance copies of books from publishers because of my blog and work as a critic, and it’s always such an honor that they think of me. I’m picky about what kind of physical books I allow into my life because of size constraints, as I live in a quite small room, but when Penguin reaches out about their children’s books, I’m usually interested in what they have to offer.

As of late they’re doing a great job in depicting diverse cultures and their traditions, which is why I tend to love saying yes to their emails. Today’s blog post is on the children’s book Happy Songkran Day!, which depicts the Thai New Year. I’ve been more interested in Thai culture and spirituality ever since I went to a Thai temple in Malaysia, so this was the perfect timing—I literally was looking at visiting the country during Songkran.

Let’s get into the review! I don’t want to go on and on about myself in the introduction.

A child-friendly look into the Thai New Year celebrations for Songkran and their significance.

As this is a book geared towards young readers, it’s beautifully illustrated. It follows a young girl who, at the start of the book, wakes up on Songkran excited for the day’s celebrations. She’s even so excited that she wakes her sister up and dashes downstairs to engage in the celebrations that the festivities entail.

We see descriptions of what exactly is standard for getting ready for the day, along with actual Thai. Something that always gets on my nerves is how English-language books about other cultures (I use other as a term for outside the norm) tend to italicize non-English languages, but the choice was made here to include Thai, not translated in the moment, and it’s not italicized.

It’s a little detail in the end, but it’s something I study and means a lot to me. The introductions in the sentences before and after the Thai phrases make it so that you don’t need a translation but can still understand what is being said. There is a glossary of terms used at the back of the book, though, for those who might need a direct translation to help their little one understand it.

That also leads me to another point: the descriptions of rituals I mentioned before are also simply explained, which was a relief because my knowledge of Songkran is limited even. I felt like I learned a lot from this little book and I’m outside of the age range it’s meant for!

I was also really pleasantly surprised at how long this book was. I feel like it’s a little bit longer than some of the other children’s books I’ve received lately, but the story throughout is fairly comprehensive. I really enjoyed the little vignettes about cooking especially and the protagonist helping her mother in the kitchen, whether it’s putting satay on the sticks or helping cut papaya salad.

There’s even a little conflict happening at one point, introducing a small life lesson in the midst of all of these celebrations going on. Sometimes things don’t happen the way we want them to, and no plan goes smoothly all the time!

Overall Thoughts

I don’t often read children’s books, but when I do, I find myself impressed at the little worlds and stories they contain. Despite being shorter and often simpler so younger readers can understand them, there’s a lot of wisdom packed within the covers of these kinds of books. Happy Songkran Day! is one of them for sure.

I mentioned earlier how I felt like I was learning a lot from this book, and it’s true. Not only is it cute, but it’s effective in introducing a very important Thai holiday and what it might look like for this one family. From rituals to day-to-day life, I think it does a very good job in setting up a long-term interest of learning more and observing the culture respectfully.

And, in terms of representation, this is solid as well. Beyond tourism and basic dishes like pad thai and red curries, I feel like Thai culture in the United States is limited in terms of how it’s represented. Southeast Asian literature and film overall, too, are lacking in translation, leaving us without many options to directly learn about these countries and their cultures.

All of this is to say that I enjoyed reading this a lot and would recommend it to readers of all ages! So much love to the publisher for sending a copy over my way—I think if this catches your eye, definitely pick a copy up at your local indie bookstore.

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