From Publishers Weekly
In this somewhat desultory but affecting autobiography, Yep ( Dragonwings ) describes himself as a collection of disparate puzzle pieces: a Chinese-American raised in a black neighborhood, a child too American to fit into Chinatown and too Chinese to fit in anywhere else. Writing, he explains, has conferred on him the role of puzzle-solver, allowing him imaginatively to join and even reinvent the pieces. Among the most notable figures in Yep's unassuming narrative are his hardworking, indomitable parents, owners of a grocery that requires their unflagging attention, and his Chinatown grandmother, the model for several characters in his novels. Occasional flashes of humor or whimsy--an eccentric chemistry teacher's antics, the revelation that Yep wrote his Mark Twain books to the music of the B-52s--enliven the mix. Ages 11-13.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From School Library Journal
Grade 6-12-- Although this memoir takes readers through Yep's college years, the focus is clearly on his childhood. Born and raised in San Francisco, he gives a vivid account of life in that city in the '50s and '60s and his own quest for personal identity. Raised largely in the mainstream culture, yet influenced also by his Chinese heritage, Yep's piecing together of his own puzzle provides fascinating insights into the whole American mosaic. Readers of his novels will be intrigued by references to their gestation and what people and episodes from life were transformed into now classic fiction. Whether musing on his inventive parents; growing up Asian in a black, Hispanic, and white neighborhood; or enduring the drudgery in the family store, Yep always offers something of value for readers to enjoy and mull over. Family photographs add to the immediacy and illustrate the text to a greater degree than in most biographies. The writing is warm, wry, and humorous right--to the dryly droll colophon. The Last Garden will be welcomed as a literary autobiography for children and, more, a thoughtful probing into what it means to be an American.
- John Philbrook, San Francisco Public LibraryCopyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
