Module 6: American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

Yang, Gene Luen. 2006. American born Chinese. New York: Square Fish.

Gene Luen Yang’s graphic novel American Born Chinese tells the tale of three characters—the Monkey King, middle schooler Jin Wang, and high schooler Danny. Yang goes back and forth between the three stories until, in the end, the reader discovers how all three characters’ stories intersect. The Monkey King is the first character introduced. He is a kung-fu expert, monkey god who attends a party in heaven and is thrown out for being a monkey and for not wearing shoes. This angers the Monkey King, and he decides to transform himself and gain the respect of those who threw him out of the heavens and avenge his honor. His actions cause him to end up stuck under a massive rock for hundreds of years until he is able to make peace with who he is and free himself. This same theme appears in the other two characters’ tales. Jin Wang is an American born Chinese. When he moves to a school where he is one of a few Asians among white kids, he finds himself isolated, made fun of, and bullied. He finally makes a friend named Wei-Chen Sun. When seventh grade hits and the hormones kick in, Jin Wang begins to crush on his classmate Amelia Harris. Jin Wang struggles to deal with this crush, his embarrassment with being Chinese and different, and other people’s marginalization and prejudice towards him for being a minority. Like the Monkey King, Jin Wang is trying to come to terms with his identity. The last story is about Danny, a blond, white kid with a mysterious Chinese cousin named Chin-Kee. Every year, Chin-Kee comes to visit Danny and severely embarrasses him because he is a “bitingly funny bundle of racist stereotypes” (Library Journal, March 2007). Every year, just when Danny is beginning to fit into school, Chin-Kee visits and causes others to see him only as Chin-Kee’s cousin, and he becomes an outsider and must change schools--again. What is interesting about the three characters and their storylines is how they intersect in the end. The characters are all connected, but if I were to say how, that would totally ruin the story, so read this graphic novel to see what happens.

This is an excellent graphic novel for middle grades on up. First of all, the visuals are great. The September 2006 edition of Booklist says that this book has “vibrant colors and visual panache.” The colors of each frame are appealing and the drawings are clean and crisp. The pictures and the text work fit perfectly together. A review in the Library Journal (March 2007) calls the “art [work] simple, colorful, and both attractive and effective.” Another aspect of this novel that makes it so profound is Yang’s theme and characters. The theme is universal: learning to accept oneself for who he/she is. The characters, even the Monkey King, are painted with realistic, human flaws and internal conflict. The reader will appreciate their struggle to just fit into their world and be accepted. Ultimately, all three characters have to learn that the acceptance must come from within. A School Library Journal (Sept. 2006) book review says this graphic novel is “a well-crafted work that aptly explores issues of self-image, cultural identity, transformation, and self-acceptance” and that it is a “satisfying coming-of-age novel that aptly blends traditional Chinese fables and legends with bathroom humor, action figures, and playground politics.” Other elements that make this an enjoyable graphic novel to read is the humor (albeit adolescent at times) and the original plot twist towards the end of the novel that reveals how all the characters are connected. This is a great book for school and public libraries. It could be studied assigned as a graphic novel to study in class, but only to upper level high school students who have the maturity to deal with some of its weighty topics—such as racism. This book may face censorship because it deals with racism and Asian stereotypes. However, Yang treats these subjects deftly and has a valuable message for all readers that transcends race and reaches out to a universal and diverse audience.

Book Review Quotes:

Publishers Weekly (June 12, 2006):

• “a fable for every kid born into a body and a life they wished they could escape.”
• “this story’s clear, concise lines and expert coloring are deceptively simple yet expressive. Even when Yang slips in an occasional Chinese ideogram or myth, the sentiments he’s depicting need no translation.”
• Yang’s message: “accept who you are and you’ll already have reached out to others.”

School Library Journal (Sept. 2006):

• “Yang’s crisp line drawings, linear panel arrangement, and muted colors provide a strong visual complement to the textual narrative.”

Booklist (Sept. 2006):

• “Yang helps the humor to shine by using his art to exaggerate or contradict the words, creating a synthesis that marks an accomplished graphic storyteller.”
• “The stories have a simple, engaging sweep to them, but their weighty subjects--shame, racism, and friendship—receive thoughtful, powerful examination.”

School Library Journal (Oct. 2006):

• a “zippy, heartfelt tale of what it means to grow up Asian American.”

Teacher Librarian (February 2007)

• “a brilliant tale about finding one’s place in the world.”

Recognition & Awards:

• Winner of 2007 Michael L. Printz Award
  
• National Book Award Finalist
• Booklist Top Ten Graphic Novel for Youth
• NPR Holiday Pick
• Publishers Weekly Comics Week Best Comic of the Year
• San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year
• The Reuben Award for Best Comic Book
• The Chinese American Librarians Association 2006/2007 Best Book Award
• Eisner Awards 2007—Best Graphic Album—New
• Time Magazine Top Ten Comic of the Year
• Amazon.com Best Graphic Novel/Comic of the Year

Book Cover Art from Barnes&Noble.com:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/American-Born-Chinese/Gene-Luen-Yang/e/9780312384487/?itm=1&USRI=american+born+chinese

Module 6: Crank by Ellen Hopkins

Hopkins, Ellen. 2004. Crank. New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books.

Crank by Ellen Hopkins is a novel in free verse poetry that tells the story of 15-year old Kristina and how she becomes addicted to the Monster (aka crystal meth or crank). Kristina’s addiction begins with a visit to her estranged father for a summer. This visit reveals to the reader that her father is a junkie himself, and when Kristina first meets him at the airport and hugs him, she describes the hug as “Nasty odors gulped. Marlboros. Jack Daniels. Straighforward B.O.” At her father’s apartment complex, she meets bad boy Adam who she describes as having a “hot bod,” “a bare, baby face to make the angels sing,” a “tawny six pack,” “pretty boy,” with a “smile that zapped every cell” (Hopkins 2004, 27-28). Adam becomes Kristina’s first boyfriend, and he introduces her to the Monster. It is during the brief weeks visiting her father that begins Kristina’s downward spiral into a haze of drugs and a craving for Crank. She invents a new personal—named Bree—that helps her to flirt and throw herself without remorse into her drug-infused state, and when Kristina returns to her mom's house after visiting her father, Bree and the Monster come with her. Whatever Kristina cannot do due to a conscience, Bree can and does. Hopkins takes the reader on Kristina’s/Bree’s story and provides an inside view into a mind of a drug addict and the destruction that the addiction leaves in its wake to the addict and the loved one’s of the addict.

Crank is for ages 14 on up. It deals with a serious topic—drug addiction, but it does not laud drug use. Instead, it shows how quickly it can flare up and how utterly devastating it can be on a person’s life. Author Ellen Hopkins wrote this story based on her own daughter Kristina’s addiction. The novel includes an author’s note where Hopkins says that the story and characters are “composites of real people” (Hopkins 2004, Author’s Note) and lets the reader know that the “baby” that “Kristina” bears in the end as a result of date rape in the novel now lives with her husband and herself. One of outstanding qualities of this novel in free verse is Hopkin’s ability to string together a compelling, vivid, poetic narrative of Kristina’s addiction to the monster. Hopkin’s is able to get inside the head of a Crank addict and give the reader a realistic and strong sense of what goes on in the mind and life of an addict. In a Publishers Weekly book review (November 2004), the reviewer says of Crank that “Readers will appreciate the creative use of form here.” This reviewer has it right. Hopkin’s skillfully plays around with the poetic structure of the poems. Some poems will have alternate lines, allowing them to be read separately or together, and some of the poems take on shapes of images she addresses in her poems. Throughout the entire book, Hopkin’s deftly uses punctuation, stanza shaping, and line placing to produce the most impact for each poem. She succeeds. In fact, the School Library Journal (Nov. 2004) describes Hopkin’s free-verse poems as “paint[ing] painfully sharp images of Kristina/Bree and those around her, detailing how powerful the “monster” can be,” and the poems are “masterpieces of word, shape, and pacing, compelling readers on to the next chapter in Kristina’s spiraling world.” I recommend this book for high school students and above. This is a good book to suggest for independent reading. It is also a good one to read snippets of to a class when studying either free verse poetry or the topic of addiction. Also, the librarian can promote the reading of poetry and this book through a book trailer or a book talk. Some parents may not like the book because it deals with teen drug addiction, date rape, teen pregnancy, and other serious issues.

Book Review Quotes:

Publishers Weekly (November 2004):

• “Readers get a vivid sense of the highs and lows involved in using crank.”
• The author “creates a world nearly as consuming and disturbing as the titular drug.”

Kirkus Reviews (October 2004):

• “Hypnotic and jagged free verse wrenchingly chronicles 16-year old Kristina’s addiction to crank.”
• “Powerful and unsettling.”

School Library Journal (Nov. 2004):

• “This is a topical page-turner and a stunning portrayal of a teen’s loss of direction and realistically uncertain future.”

Booklist (Nov. 2004):

• “Readers won’t soon forget smart, sardonic Kristina; her chilling descent into addiction…”

Book Cover Art from Barnes&Noble.com:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Crank/Ellen-Hopkins/e/9780689865190/?itm=4&USRI=crank

Module 6: What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones

Sones, Sonya. 2001. What my mother doesn’t know. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.

Book Excerpt:

“During French Class

Je ne peux pas conjugate the verbs

parce que I’m sitting right across

from my old boyfriend Lou

and his lips.

I feel myself turning green

when I look at them:

thick, chapped,

gleaming under a drizzle of spit.

How could I ever

have let him kiss me?

I can even remember

wanting him to kiss me.

What could I have been thinking?

That mouth of his,

so perpetually overflowing

with saliva.

It touched mine.”

(Sones 2001, 41)

The above free-verse poem is just one excerpt of a book of free-verse poems by Sonya Sones in the novel What My Mother Doesn’t Know. The main character is Sophie, and the reader gets to experience her (almost 15 year old) world and all the highs and lows of being that age. The novel is written in a free-verse confessional (or diary) style format. Sophie tells the reader about everything in her life—her boyfriends, her break-ups, her best friends (Grace and Rachel), her tumultuous relationship with her mother who likes to escape life into the world of soaps, and her distant and often absentee father.

This is a fun book to read and girls ages 12 on up will enjoy it. As evidenced in the excerpt above, the poetry is engaging, and Sophie’s meanderings will appeal to a teen girl audience. The poems are strung together in a cohesive narrative, and Sones does a good job of keeping the reader hooked. The character of Sophie is realistic and depicts relatable situations for a young teen audience. For example, after dating Dylan for awhile, Sophie goes from being totally in love with him and thinking of only him to unexplainably not being able to stand him. This is chronicled in the poem “I Don’t Get It,” where Sophie thinks the following:

“I used to think it was so cute

the way Dylan’s sneakers always

squeaked when he walked.

I liked teasing him about them.

Called them his squeakers.

Loved being able to hear

him coming a mile away…

…But now when I hear those

noisy Nikes of his,

I feel like

I want to scream.

I want to stomp on his toes.

I want to trip him up and run away.

I just don’t get it.”

(Sones 2001, 83)

Ahh…the fickleness of young love is portrayed so well through the character of Sophie. An October 2001 review in Publishers Weekly says this of What My Mother Doesn’t Know: “…Sophie’s honest and earthy story feels destined to captivate a young female audience, avid and reluctant readers alike.” I think that is the key of success in this Sones’ novel: the writing is real and true to a teenage girl’s life and thoughts. Sones is able to remember what it was like being a teen, and she is able to skillfully tap back into those feelings and experiences. I will end with this quote by the School Library Journal (Oct. 2001) about this book: “Sones’s poems are glimpses through a peep-hole many teens may be peering through for the first time, unaware that others are seeing virtually the same new, scary, unfamiliar things…” I highly recommend this book of poetry. However, this book has been restricted and censored in some places (American Libraries Jun/July 2007). Parents have objected to some of the scenes in the book, such as in the poem “Ice Capades” when Sophie presses her bare breasts up against a cold window. This book reviewer is of the opinion that anyone censoring this book must have only read that poem and one or two others and has not read the book as a whole because the book is quite innocuous and funny. Due to the past controversy about this book, I would only suggest it be used for independent reading and not formally studied in the classroom.

Book Review Quotes:

School Library Journal (Oct. 2001):

• “Sones is a bright, perceptive writer who digs deeply into her protagonist’s soul.”

Publishers Weekly (Oct. 2001):

• “Drawing on the recognizable cadences of teenage speech, Sones … poignantly captures the tingle and heartache of being young and boy-crazy.”

Book Cover Art from Barnes&Noble.com:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/What-My-Mother-Doesnt-Know/Sonya-Sones/e/9781423365716/?itm=6&USRI=what+my+mother+doesn%27t+know

Module 5: A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

Donnelly, Jennifer. 2003. A northern light. Orlando: Harcourt, Inc. ISBN 978-0-15-205310-9

Author Jennifer Donnelly’s A Northern Light is a wonderful piece of historical fiction that weaves the story of Mattie Gokey, a teen who lives in the Adirondacks in the early 1900s, or what she calls the North Woods, with her father and sisters. When the story opens, the reader discovers that Mattie’s mother has died the previous year, her one and only brother has run off, and her father has emotionally shut down and become hardened and remote from his family. Mattie and her siblings must endure backbreaking work just to work their farm and survive. Mattie loves words and books, and her and her best friend Weaver Smith, a young black man, are prized pupils at the school. Under the tutelage of the independent and inspirational teacher Ms. Wilcox, Mattie and Weaver are studying hard to take exams and gain entrance into university. Both are accepted, but circumstances in the North Woods present obstacles for both Mattie and Weaver’s dreams. Mattie does not have her father’s support or the money to get to New York to attend college, and she feels bound by a promise that she made to her mother that she would not leave but help to raise her younger sisters. Mattie considers herself bookish and plain and is surprised when good-looking Royal Loomis begins to “spark” with her and proposes. When Mattie begins working at the Glenmore hotel, she meets Grace Brown, a young girl who gives Mattie a bunch of letters to burn if she does not return from a boating trip with her beau Carl Grahm (who we later discover is Chester Gillette). When Grace Brown does not return and her body is discovered in the river, Mattie begins to read the letters by Grace Brown and faces conflict over keeping her promise to Grace Brown or turning the letters over to the local authorities. The reader will read in anticipation of discovering if Mattie will be able to achieve her dreams of going to college or decide to settle down and marry Royal, and the mystery surrounding Grace Brown’s death will also hold the readers’ attention.

Donnelly has delivered an excellent piece of historical fiction. The story presents the real life murder of Grace Brown by Chester Gillette, a man who killed her after getting her pregnant in order to avoid marriage to Grace. Grace’s story serves as a subplot to the central character of Mattie’s life in the early 1900s in the North Woods. As a protagonist, Mattie is likable and admirable. She is fictional, which fits the traditional historical fiction genre. Mattie is also a realistic adolescent in that she has dreams for a better life and of seeing the world, but she feels bound by responsibilities to her family and is enticed to stay by her sexual awakening with neighbor boy Royal Loomis. Life is not rosy for Mattie as she struggles to figure out how to achieve her dream of going to college, reading books, and one day becoming a writer. Author Donnelly also did a good job of creating a cast of supporting characters who are well-developed, such as Mattie’s best friend Weaver, his mama, her father, her siblings, her Uncle Fifty, and many more characters—most who are fictional but some who are real.

The story is set in the early 1900s in the Adirondacks—the North Woods. Donnelly clearly researched the time period so well that she is effortlessly able to weave in details on what life was like during this period and place, which is also a major characteristic of good historical fiction. The harsh, unforgiving environment and life of the working people in this book during this time is portrayed realistically and inspirationally through Mattie Gokey and her family.

Donnelly also has an appealing and unique style of writing. First of all, the sequence of the story is told in a non-linear way, and it works. Donnelly begins the novel in 1906 on the day that Grace Brown’s body is discovered. Donnelly provides background on Mattie’s interaction with Grace, the letters, and the aftermath of her body being found. Then, Donnelly switches to the near past and the events that led Mattie to working at the Glenmore and her meeting of Grace Brown. The chapters that are set after Grace Brown’s body has been found have no chapter title, but the chapters set in the past before Mattie met Grace Brown are titled by Mattie’s words of the day for she is a lover of words and books and makes sure to have and use a word a day.

The other aspect of Donnelly’s writing that is so appealing is her narrative language. It is vivid. The language provides depth and evokes amusement, sadness, horror, and hope (and many other emotions) from the beginning to the end of the book. For example, while Mattie assists her friend Minnie with the birth of her twins, Mattie thinks: “I have read so many books, and not one of them tells the truth about babies. Dickens doesn’t. Oliver’s mother just dies in childbirth and that’s that. Bronte doesn’t. Catherine Earnshaw just has her daughter and that’s that. There’s no blood, no sweat, no pain, no fear, no heat, no stink. Writers are damned liars. Every single one of them” (Donnelly 2003, 93).This quotation gives the reader insight into Mattie's character but is also quite humorous.

I highly recommend this book, especially for independent reading. However, it is also a good book to read when learning about the early 1900s and women’s roles during this time. Donnelly researched her time period well and also wove in the true story of Grace Brown using real excerpts from her letters to bring Grace's tragedy to life. The book provides an author’s note and sources for further and suggested reading on Grace Brown, the geographical location of Mattie's story, farming, and general history. In addition, there is a short author interview at the end of the novel as well as a reader chat page that would work well in literary circles. This reviewer will definitely be checking out other books from by Jennifer Donnelly because of her writing’s historical integrity and literary talent.

Quotes from the Literary World concerning A Northern Light:

• Feminist Collections: A Quarterly of Women’s Studies Resources (Summer/Fall 2007) “The result is a tale that is beautiful in both scope and depth as it reveals not only the obstacles but also the triumphs of life.”
  

• Dreiser Studies, Linda Dunleavy, Winter 2004 a “powerful coming-of-age story”

• School Library Journal, November 2004 “Based upon a real-life murder mystery, this book blends gothic romance, historical fiction, and YA coming-of-age into one neat package.”

• Booklist, May 2004, “a beautiful, ambitious coming-of-age story.”

• School Library Journal, Spring2004 “Set in...Adirondacks in 1906, this atmospheric story based on a true incident involves a teen trapped by family expectations, a fickle fiancé and a murder. A fine blending of characters, setting, and suspense.”

Recognition & Awards:

• A 2004 Printz Honor Book
• An ALA “Top Ten” Best Book for YA
• A Booklist Top Ten Youth First Novel
• A Book Sense 76 Top Ten Book for Teens
• A Junior Library Guild Selection
• A New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age
• A Parent’s Guide Children’s Media YA Honor Book
• A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
• A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year

Book Cover Art from Barnes&Noble.com:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/A-Northern-Light/Jennifer-Donnelly/e/9780152053109/?itm=1&USRI=a+northern+light