5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Cultural Pick, January 31, 2007
This review is from: The Jade Dragon (Hardcover)
A new girl has arrived in Ginny's class. Stephanie looks just like her: Chinese. Ginny is excited that she won't be the only Chinese girl anymore, and she hopes that Stephanie will be her best friend.
Friendship with Stephanie doesn't turn out the way Ginny expects. Stephanie has white parents, and she won't touch Chinese food or clothes. So when Stephanie wants to borrow a hand-carved jade dragon, Ginny doesn't want to say "no." Besides, MaMá probably won't notice if it's gone a few days. Then Ginny learns that getting it back will be harder than she thinks, and that friendship with Stephanie is complicated. Won't anything go the way Ginny expects?
Set in the early 1980s, this is a sweet story that hinges on the tremendous force of cultural collision. What does it mean to carry on one's cultural identity in another country? Immigrant children face even greater questions when thrust into the position of not-quite old country, and not entirely American. Marsden and Loh approach these weighty issues by offering a sensitive, gentle story from a little girl's point of view.
While Ginny's story was set two decades ago, it is highly relevant to children affected by today's immigrant population explosion. Suburban and urban classrooms are more diverse than ever before, and it's important for children to be sensitive to classmates who must face cultural differences. Ginny is a character that these children can relate to, as well as someone who can teach "native" kids to look beyond exotic faces and clothing.
This book is a great pick for individual or classroom reading.
Reviewed by Christina Wantz Fixemer
01/31/2007
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Two Chinese Daughters, June 2, 2007
This review is from: The Jade Dragon (Hardcover)
This is a story of two Chinese girls -- Stephanie, born in China and adopted by a white American couple, and Ginny, born in the US of Chinese parents who adhere to customs of their homeland. Each is struggling to find her place in a society where she might fit in, where each is so different from classmates and neighbors. American-born Ginny is deeply immersed in the Chinese traditions of her family. She is thrilled to see another girl at school who has the same Asian look as she does. She feels they have a common link which will lead to friendship. Stephanie is cherished by her adoptive family. While she is being raised as an all-American girl, her mother also wants Stephanie to embrace her heritage. Stephanie resists with everything she's got. She resents her Chinese looks. She wants the blond hair and blue eyes of the girls she admires at school. This story is a sensitive look at the question of assimilation, friendship, and acceptance.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Subtle splendor, February 1, 2007
This review is from: The Jade Dragon (Hardcover)
I've been reading a lot of children's books this year that have the feel of A Stranger Comes To Town. Or, in the world of kid literature, A New Kid Comes To School. There have been stories where the new child is overweight, where the new kid has been horribly burned, and where the new kid is sexually abused. Imagine my relief, then, when I pick up something like, "The Jade Dragon". In this book, the new kid is just a small girl of Chinese descent. Judging from its slim size (only 160 some pages), I didn't expect much from this book. Imagine my surprise then when I found it to be a surprisingly multifaceted story tucked inside a seemingly simple package. Author Carolyn Marsden has teamed with school teacher Virginia Shin-Mui Loh to tell a tale of second grade morality and what it truly means to be a friend.
When Ginny sees that the new girl in her class, Stephanie, is Chinese-American just like her, she's thrilled beyond words. Finally! The daughter of Chinese immigrants, Ginny has been dying for a kid "just like herself" for a long long time, and here she is! The only problem is that Stephanie doesn't seem to realize that she's the answer to Ginny's prayers. She doesn't seem to like Chinese food or associate with Ginny's culture whatsoever. Then the truth comes out. Stephanie was adopted from China when she was just a baby. Her parents are WASPs and she couldn't care less about her Chinese roots. Tentatively the two begin a friendship, but it isn't until Ginny lends Stephanie her prized jade dragon heirloom that the two begin to become close. Now she has a friend, but also a horrible choice. Ask for the dragon back and lose the one person she wants to stay close to forever and ever, or lose something that's truly a part of her.
What this story does beautifully is set up your average child reader's personal prejudices and then knock them flat, one by one. On the one hand, kids reading this book might get mad at Stephanie for not being interested in Chinese culture. On the other hand, they'll have a hard time denying that Stephanie's room (a kind of fantasy bedroom for sparkle-inclined little girls) is just the kind that they themselves would love to have. The authors are also careful to put in the subtlest of racist insults as well. At one point Ginny is wearing a red cheongsam against her will. She wanted to wear the fluffy Barbie-like dress her father bought her, but her mom insisted she wear a cheongsam instead. When Stephanie's mother sees Ginny, she's charmed. "I wish Stephanie would wear something like that. You look like a little China doll". Later at a sleepover, Stephanie confesses to Ginny that sometimes she wishes she could be white and blond and "American". Ginny knows what she means. Hopefully the book will make it clear to kids that such wishes, innocent though they may be, aren't so hot.
The book is a period piece of sorts, taking place in the year 1983. I suspect that perhaps some details in this book were based on a true story. This could also explain why the book's characters are in the second grade. Actually, the age of the characters was a point of contention for me. Second graders could definitely be read this story, but I doubt that many of them would be able to read it entirely on their own. This would certainly be ideal reading material for fourth graders instead. Then again, how many fourth graders that you know like to read about kids younger than themselves? The age of the characters and the level of written sophistication seem a bit at odds here. It probably would have fared better to make the children in this book fourth graders at the very least.
There is bound to be some comparison of "The Jade Dragon" to the fellow Chinese-American 2006 publication, "The Year of the Dog", by Grace Lin. In both little books (Lin's book weighs in at the even slimmer 134 pages) our heroine is Chinese born American and a there's a new girl in her class of the same racial background. In Lin's story the two become instant best friends and share their lives together. Marsden and Loh's book, in contrast, is a bit more complex. In the end, there's no denying that Marsden and Loh have come up with a remarkably sophisticated story in a misleadingly simple format.
If you're looking for other contemporary tales of American born Chinese kids, definitely seek out "Ruby Lu, Empress of Everything" by Lenore Look as well as the aforementioned "Year of the Dog". All three of these books discuss assimilation, being Chinese-American, and how hard it is to meld two cultures together sometimes. Only "The Jade Dragon" takes it a step farther and introduces the concept of Chinese-American kids born with and without their birth parents' cultural influence. A heady and intelligent book that deserves some attention.
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