From School Library Journal
K-Gr 2-This narrative follows a child and her family from their severely damaged home in Chinatown to the relative safety of Golden Gate Park on the day of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Unfortunately, most of the dramatic tension such a day would engender has been lost in overly cautious prose. The concluding author's note is far more interesting. It contains fascinating details (the mother and grandmother had bound feet, which hindered their progress to safety) and factual information (the original death count excluded women and children, Native Americans, African Americans, and Japanese and Chinese immigrants because they were not on the books as voters or property owners). Illustrations utilize a somber palette of browns and grays. The buildings of the city will be disappointing to readers who are familiar with San Francisco because they lack the distinctive and recognizable style of the city's architecture. Named sites, such as Portsmouth Square, lack identifying characteristics, rendering the art generic rather than site specific. Even the figures seem generic, devoid of individual personalities. Although this story is based on the author's mother's experience, it lacks the spark of life.
Dorian Chong, School of Library and Information Science, San Jose State University, CA
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Ages 5-8. Lee based this story on the memories of her mother, who was eight years old when the disastrous earthquake of 1906 destroyed most of San Francisco. The girl's first-person narration describes the chain of events that took place that day, first in her Chinatown home, as the family hurriedly packed their belongings amid crashing dishes and clanging pots, then later, as the family and many others made their way across town through the collapsing buildings to the newly erected tent city in Golden Gate Park. Choi's illustrations, oil paintings done in a limited palette of muted earth tones, accurately portray the events of the story and give youngsters a glimpse of turn-of-the-century San Francisco. Although the book is nicely done, neither the words nor the pictures truly capture the frenzied, chaotic atmosphere that surrounds a disaster of this magnitude. An author's note supplies more details about the earthquake and the fate of Lee's family.
Lauren PetersonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
