Title: American Born Chinese
Author: Gene Luen Yang
Genre: Graphic Novel
Publisher: First Second, 2006
Honors: Printz winner 2007
This book contains three interrelated stories about fitting into the American culture. The book starts with the Monkey King which is an old Chinese fable. He is born a monkey but wants to be a god. The next story starts out with Jin Wang who is moving to a new school and finds himself to be the only Chinese-American student in the school. The third story is about Chin-kee who negatively stereotypes himself as Chinese. Chin-Kee comes every year to visit his cousin Danny. Danny is a popular boy at school but his popularity is challenged by his cousin's annoying visit.
These three stories continue to be told throughout the book. Each chapter uses a picture of the subject which makes it easy for the reader to follow which story they are on.
The pictures are well done and the strips are easy to follow.
When Jin starts his new school the teacher introduces him to the class, "Class, I'd like us all to give a warm Mayflower Elementary welcome to you new friend and classmate Jing Jang!" to which Jin replies "Jin Wang." The teacher continues "He and his family recently moved to our neighborhood all the way from China!" Jin replies, "San Francisco." A boy says "My momma says chinese people eat dogs." The teacher replies, "Now be nice Timmy! I'm sure Jin doesn't do that! In fact Jin's family probably stopped that sort of thing as soon as they came to the United States!" It's so funny yet draws the readers attention to the stereotypes people use.
Jin eventually makes friends with Wei-Chen who moves to the school a few months later.
The other story follows Danny, a popular boy in school, until his cousin Chin-Kee arrives for a visit and ruins his life.
The monkey king continues his quest to fulfill his dream of being god.
I really enjoyed this book. I never thought I would enjoy a graphic novel. I liked the use of the three stories that eventually came together in the end. It was easy to follow and quick to read. I think it is a great book for an introduction to graphic novels.
I think both boys and girls would enjoy this book. I think students could relate with the characters about acceptance.
For a book hook I would do a reader's theater with the students and the passage I wrote about earlier. I would also include the passage when Wei-Chen is also introduced at school. "Class, I'd like us all to give a big Mayflower elementary welcome to your new friend and classmate Chei-Chen Chun" "Wei-Chen Sun!" The teacher continues, "He and his family recently moved to our neighborhood all the way from China!" Wei-Chen replied, "Taiwan."
The graphic novel is not a format that I thought would ever interest me. But your summary makes this title sound very interesting. It also is appealing because of its nature as a quick read.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds as though there is much to learn from this story about heritage, stereotypes, acceptance, and establishing identity of oneself.
I loved the excerpts you chose. I laughed out loud because I could see and hear the whole thing in my head. Hilarious! I also like that it has a good message to share especially with students who aren't exposed to racial or cultural diversity. It would give them a chance to step into someone else's shoes and walk around for a bit. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI like your book hook. I'm really glad you enjoyed the book. This book is not one of my favorites; it is nice to know that it works for someone else.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Colleen, you chose some great excerpts! It sounds like this book shows how stereotypical Americans can sometimes be! This book would also go well with the theme of acceptance and understanding other cultures.
ReplyDeleteI like the humor you shared with us on the novel. I also like how it's divided into different stories. Sounds like a great way to introduce multiculture to students as well.
ReplyDeleteI also enjoyed your book hook. This was a title I have been meaning to read but was a little reluctant to read because it was a graphic novel but I'm hooked after being required to read one for class. I definitly will be picking it up for summer!
ReplyDeleteChina, Taiwan ... it's all the same, right?
ReplyDeleteOne thing I thought was very powerful about this novel was the maner in which it confronted some of the basic Asian stereotypes head on. Many times, the Caucasian kids looked like creeps for the things they said and did. For example, Suzy, Wei-Chen's girlfriend is lumped in with Jin-Wang and Wei-Chen by the other kids despite the fact that she's Japanese, not Chinese. Heck, even the elementary teacher is portrayed as a moron when it comes to cultural respect.
This would actually be a great book to generate discussion about racism and respect for other cultures by offering third party examples so that the participants in the dicussion can use the characters and personally stay a step removed.
Yikes, I put a WINK after my smart aleck comment in my post but because it was inside the < marks, it didn't show up. I'm not a complete jerk -- I was being sarcastic.
ReplyDeleteI have also read this book. For some reason I was lost at first and spent too much time trying to figure out how the stories related. I did think the storyline about the chinese student, Jin, was amusing. It was obvious the author was trying to show how we treat newcomers. I also like how the stories came together at the end.
ReplyDeleteI like what Erin says about confronting stereotypes. I think that this format would be a great way to do that without causing people to "freak out." I love when stories have different views that all come together in the end. This sounds like a good one.
ReplyDeleteGood point Caryn about using this format to discuss stereotyping without being preachy.
ReplyDeleteThis was the first (so far only) Printz winner in graphic novel format. When it won it really was a sign of that graphic novels had reached a new level of respectability.