Customer Reviews

April and the Dragon Lady

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This story is about a girl whose life is dominated by her grandmother. April,(the girl) is born in America whereas her grandmother was brought up in the East(China). In Chinese culture,the boys are more valuable than the girls. Poor April has to take care of her grandmother. One day,she met a Caucasian boy named Steve. From that day onwards,they became friends. Steve taught her equality and also told her that it's not only her responsibilty to take care of her grandmother. It's also her brother's job.April's grandmother doesn't like her children to marry a Caucasian. April's brother,Harry always give excuses to avoid taking care of Grandmother.

April is forced to cancel a lot of music practise and other things. The whole family has to find a solution. I really pity April. I can't take that big responsibility of taking care of my grandmother. Many other things happen in this story. I find out a lot of hardships April goes through. I really love this book.

April is Chinese-American. She lives with her father, brother, and grandmother in Seattle, Washington. When the story begins, April is a junior in high school. She plays in her school's orchestra and belongs to the geology club. April loves rocks. She wants to go to school in Colorado to study geology, but there is a big problem - GRANDMA.

Grandma came to live with them when April was small. April's mother was so distraught that she went to work at the local library, until she died two years ago from lung cancer.

In Chinese-American families, the most important family members are the boys. The girls don't count for much. April, growing up in America, is having trouble being submissive, especially to her spoiled, doted-on brother.

When Grandma is diagnosed with diabetes and begins showing signs of senility, it is expected that April take care of her. April is torn between being the good Chinese daughter and pursuing her dreams of going to college and becoming a geologist. Her brother is so self-centered that April has to give up being in the orchestra and belonging to her rock club. Will she have to give up all of her dreams?

I enjoyed reading APRIL AND THE DRAGON LADY and did so in about a week while reading three other books. April is a good character and her fight is interesting. The characters learned a lot during the length of the story about family, love, culture, independence, and giving to others. I highly recommend reading this book.

Reviewed by: Marta Morrison

In April and the Dragon Lady, April Chen faces difficulties trying to break free of her grandmother's control over her life and the customs of the Ancient Chinese.
One of the challenges placed in her path by her controlling grandmother is the right to date Steve, April's Caucasian boyfriend. This is not allowed because of a custom that states that a Chinese woman must marry a Chinese man. Another challenge placed in her path is her grandmother's stubbornness to the old expression "my way or the highway". April faces the challenge of trying to break free of the Chinese customs but still taking care of her grandmother since her older brother Harry won't do anything, her father doesn't pay attention, and her mother is dead. In this book, April also discovers some new things about her grandmother that relate to the way she was brought up. One is that her grandmother is a racist and the other is that she is a sexist. She is racist against anyone not Chinese and she is sexist against women. Throughout the book, April begins to realize that she is neither American nor Chinese si she must stretch herself to cover both areas of her life and to get her grandmother to realize that the world is changing and no one lives by the old ways anymore, she must look deep inside herself and discover who is truly is.
At the end of the book, April has discovered her true self and she receives a token from her grandmother (the Dragon lady) that shows her that she too can change.

April and Steve both find a geode at the same time. They talk and they decide to share if by splitting it in half. April and Steve both got in a fight because April doesn't want to introduce Steve to her family. April is Chinese and Steve is American.
I really liked the book because it taught me a good lesson about how it doesn't matter what culture you are to be able to hang out with other people.
I also like this book because it told a good and interesting story. It told about two cultures that wanted to be with each other but some people didn't like that they wanted to hang out together.
This book has one more really interesting story. In the book there is a woman and she liked April's father since high school and now in thee later ages there just wanting to get together and I thought that was kind of cool.

I really enjoyed this book. First of all, it was very relatable, as I will be going to high school soon (in Seattle, just like April was) and I could recognize many of the landmarks she talked about. I also really liked all of the characters. The grandmother cracked me up, because she would go away to other families and places when she was angry, and would put the rest of her family in a worry looking all over for her. Also, she was very opinionated and hilarious - she blew dandelion seeds into the neighbor's yard just to make him mad, and also to get back at him for dumping leaves into HER yard. Haha! She was really well-thought-out, and so was the entire book. The author really made things realistic, and any time the author intended for the reader to be enraged, I was completely mad! This is a definite 5-star book! I hope you enjoy(ed) it as much as I did. Happy reading!

I give this book a 10, because it was very funny. I liked the grandma because she would run off when she gets mad. When it was her birthday in the book, she left and the uncle, dad, April, and Steve went looking for her. April found her at another table with a different family. She was a lot happier at the table with the other family. The grandma would get into trouble all of the time. The grandma hated April's boyfriend, Steve, because he was not Chinese. When Steve would come over she would watch his every move. When they went on a picnic, Grandma took off again after everybody went on different paths. They went into a panic, but they saw her come back with a big group of Chinese people. The grandma was a very goofy character. I liked her a lot. She was the one who made this book a great one. I would deffinatly reccomend this book to other people. If i had the chance, I would read this book again.

I was very happy to receive the book since it was 98% new and very cheap! Thank you!

This book is a fantastic view into what children of immigrants live with. Constantly divided between two cultures, they struggle to be true to both. Sometimes, April, a budding geologist who lives with her manipulative grandmother, wants to be true to her Chinese heritage. Sometimes, she just wants to study for exams.

The real flavor for her circumstance shows when her own prejudices are revealed - when she looks at an issue through American eyes that her grandmother sees only through Chinese ones; when she looks at another issue through Chinese eyes, when her boyfriend only sees the American side.

The characters and situations in this book are very well drawn. The menus in this book are impeccably drawn (I was hungry for Chinese food for a week after reading it!) It's a great read for any girl looking to find her place in her family.

April and the dragon lady by Lensey Namioka is an amanzing book. April is a Chinese American girl trying to live the life of both worlds. On one side she is trying to please her grandma and be involved with her Chinese culture, but on the other side she is trying to be a normal American girl. She faces problems with having a Caucasian boyfriend and keeping him a secret, while he has a need to meet the family. This book really moved me because growing up in the Chinese culture in America isn't always the easiest thing. The book is so precise because that really is how most Chinese Grandparents are and I'm glad my family isn't that strict about it. The author aimed to let others know about the chinese culture and what it is about.

I love Lensey Namioka's books, read all of them and love them all. Particularly this one, because I can see myself as the main character, April. We both grown-up in a very strict traditional Asian Family. We both have grandmas that kept pestering us about our Caucasian boyfriends. We both have brothers that always can get away with many things, just because they are boys. But not only that, we both have Caucasian boyfriends that just gave us a hard time mainly because they just couldn't understand our traditions and "responsibilities as the daughter in the family" and especially about "respect to the elders." My boyfriend thought that I'm too scared of my family and afraid to stand up for what I believe. So I told him to read this book too... ha ha ha.... But like April, I believe that no matter how bad the future might seem, everything will be alright at the end.