American Born Chinese

 

Title:

American Born Chinese

 

Bibliographic Information:

Gene Luen Yang, 233 page graphic novel

First Second Books, Copyright 2006

ISBN: 9781596431522

 

Summary:

This is a tale of three different stories including one set in real world following a Chinese American student, one following Monkey King (from mythology) and one is a boy who has great life that is destroyed by walking Chinese stereotype.  The boy is trying to date a Caucasian girl and runs into trouble while the other two stories look at other flawed characters.  The Monkey King is thrown out of heaven and told to be a monkey.  The third story has the white character being embarrassed by his cousin and needing learn to deal with it.  By the end they all unite

 

Evaluation:

This graphic novel mixes different storylines together to give an interesting overall plot and story.  The artwork is colorful and done in a simple style that adds to the mood of the story and is clearly read.  The style is unique and gives the comic it own feeling and look.  It is well made set of stories that help create thinking about Chinese American experience.

 

Readers Annotation:

3 stories of struggles of Chinese Americans (and a monkey)

 

Booktalking ideas:

Talk about the struggles that various immigrant groups go through.  Talk about various stereotypes and how those stereotypes came into existence.

 

Author information:

Gene Luen Yang has won many awards for his graphic novels.  He is son of Chinese immigrants and he grew up learning Chinese stories and became fan of comic books and Disney.  Yang has more recently started working on comics based on Avatar: The Last Airbender.  website: http://www.humblecomics.com/

 

Genre:

Multi cultural novel

 

Awards:

2006 National Book Award Finalist for Young People’s Literature, 2007 Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album, 2007 Bank Street – Best Children’s Book of the Year

 

Reading Level:

Grade 7 and up

 

Challenging Issues:

There is some violence, bullying and stereotypes presented with this material.

 

Selection Reason:

I have seen this graphic novel many times when shelving, I decided to give it a read.