A touching tale of preteen angst and translation troubles.
A trip to Vietnam did not figure in Laguna, California, girl Mai Le's summer plans!
Twelve-year-old Mai (Mia at school) was looking forward to a summer at the beach with her bestie, Montana, trying to catch the eye of HIM (a boy from school), but she's forced on to a plane to keep her grandmother, Bà, company on a trip of indeterminate length. Ông, Bà's husband, went missing during the Vietnam War, and a detective claims to have found a man who knows something about Ông. Mai and Bà stay in Bà's home village, while Mai's doctor father heads into the mountains to run a clinic. Mai's Vietnamese is rusty, and only teenage boy Minh speaks English (but with a Texas accent). The heat, the mosquitoes...even the maybe-relatives are torture. Out of touch with all things American, Mai worries that Montana may put the moves on HIM; and the only girl in the village her age, Ut, is obsessed with frogs. For her sophomore effort, Newbery Honor author Lai delivers a funny, realistic tale of family and friendship and culture clashes. The subtle humor of clunky translations of Vietnamese into English and vice versa are a great contrast to Mai’s sharp and sometimes-snarky observations that offer a window into Vietnamese village life and language.
A touching tale of preteen angst and translation troubles. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Feb. 17, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-222918-2
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2014
An absorbing tale about urban life on the World War II homefront.
It’s 1944, and Dory, 12, and her brothers, Fish, 17, and Pike, 7, are living alone; their father has joined the Navy, and their mother is dead from tuberculosis.
The Byrnes live on New York City’s Lower East Side. Their neighbors assist with food, but when a new landlord finds out their dad is away, he makes trouble for the siblings. Dory, an independent risk taker, learns of a long-disused dumbwaiter inside Mr. Caputo’s restaurant in the Fulton Fish Market, where he regularly treats the kids to seafood stew. She uses the dumbwaiter to explore the otherwise inaccessible floors of an old hotel and brings her brothers there to live so they can avoid being sent to an orphanage. The story is both grounded in reality and embellished with entertaining exploits, keeping readers excited about Dory’s experiences as she holds her family together and they await their papa. Occasionally, the text shifts from third to second person and shares with readers knowledge that is hidden from Dory, such as a mystery about a hidden diamond. The novel develops the setting through the kids’ visits to places like the Empire State Building and Coney Island. Dory is an endearing character who confides her thoughts to Libby, her nickname for the Statue of Liberty. In the author’s note, the secrets behind the real hotel that inspired this story are revealed. Characters read white.
An absorbing tale about urban life on the World War II homefront. (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9780823451630
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Margaret Ferguson/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
A powerfully candid and soulful account of an immigrant experience.
A Taiwanese family tries their luck in America.
In this verse novel, it’s 1980, and nearly 11-year-old Ai Shi and her mother prepare to leave Taipei to join her father in California, where he is pursuing a business opportunity with a friend. The extended family send them off, telling Ai Shi she’s so lucky to go to the “beautiful country”—the literal translation of the Chinese name for the U.S. Once they are reunited with Ba, he reveals that they have instead poured their savings into a restaurant in the remote Los Angeles County town of Duarte. Ma and Ba need to learn to cook American food, but at least, despite a betrayal by Ba’s friend, they have their own business. However, the American dream loses its shine as language barriers, isolation, financial stress, and racism take their toll. Ai Shi internalizes her parents’ disappointment in their new country by staying silent about bullying at school and her own unmet needs. Her letters home to her favorite cousin, Mei, maintain that all is well. After a year of enduring unrelenting challenges, including vandalism by local teens, the family reaches its breaking point. Hope belatedly arrives in the form of community allies and a change of luck. Kuo deftly touches on complex issues, such as the human cost of the history between China and Taiwan as well as the socio-economic prejudices and identity issues within Asian American communities.
A powerfully candid and soulful account of an immigrant experience. (Verse historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: June 28, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-311898-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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