Ribbons [Hardcover]

Laurence Yep (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 19, 1996 | Age Level: 10 and up

When Robin Lee is forced to give up her beloved ballet lessons because her parents need the money to bring her grandmother to America from China, Robin finds herself resenting this difficult--and different--elderly foreign woman, crippled by years of having her feet bound.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Yep fumbles with this strained tale about an 11-year-old girl who yearns to dance. The star of her ballet class, Robin Lee has to give up her lessons at Madame Oblamov's academy when her mother imposes a draconian budget on the household, in order to save enough money to bring Robin's grandmother from China to the Lees' home in San Francisco. Robin gamely practices on her own, stuffing her feet into outgrown toe shoes and dreaming of her return to ballet school, but tuition money isn't available, even after her grandmother finally moves in. To make matters worse, Grandmother blatantly favors Robin's younger brother. In a forced parallel, Robin damages her feet (those too-small toe shoes), and only Grandmother can understand her determination to dance anyway: Grandmother's feet were bound in childhood and, despite immense pain, she unbound them in adulthood as a way of embracing modern values. A lot of the characterizations here verge on stereotypes: the indomitable Chinese matriarch, the unstoppable young artist with a dream, the impoverished but noble-hearted Russian ballet mistress. Combine this with the adults' extremist stances (Mom won't even let Robin keep the $20 her other grandmother sends for Christmas), and the novel reads as a lengthy contrivance. Ages 10-14.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 5^-7. Robin, 11, is a gifted dancer, and she bitterly resents having to give up her ballet classes to help her parents pay for her lame grandmother to come from Hong Kong to live with them in San Francisco. To make things worse, Grandmother treats Robin with contempt. But when Robin discovers Grandmother's terrible secret--her grotesquely mangled broken feet--their relationship suddenly changes. Chinese foot-binding is dramatic social history, but the contemporary fiction is contrived, with purposive dialogue and coincidences and heavy metaphors. Robin's feet begin to hurt because she practices ballet on concrete floors with too-tight shoes; and, in case we still don't get the parallel, she reads the story of the brave little mermaid who wanted to walk even though it hurt. Yep has written novels with considerable depth and subtlety about the Chinese American experience, but here we get only glimpses of Robin's interracial family and her neighborhood friends; they never quite come together as people in a story. As in Yep's Hiroshima (1995), it's the fact that's compelling. Hazel Rochman

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Juvenile (March 19, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039922906X
• ISBN-13: 978-0399229060
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,132,145 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Laurence Yep has been fascinated with tales of sibling rivalry from the day he was born. His older brother, Tom, chose his name Laurence - after a saint who died a particularly gruesome death. Laurence has been trying to get even ever since. Laurence Yep now lives in Pacific Grove, California, with his wife and is one of children's literature's most respected authors. His award-winning titles include Newbery Honor Books Dragonwings and Dragon's Gate.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars very good, November 10, 2002

By 

riley (NYC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ribbons (Paperback)

ribbons- a book that on the surface seems simple. a gifted young dancer, robin, must stop dancing because of money problems, which are caused by her grandmother. some people may say this is a grandmother-grandaughter story but it isn't at all. it is another way to show injustice and tragedy. this book made me cry from the unfairness of it all, and the amazing thing about this book is this: whereas most sad books are entirely realistic, this one could happen very easily. the reality of it, and the robin's brave, bright, innocent hope in the midst of true sadness is what makes you cry. for while she is deeply upset with her mother and grandmother for reasons very justified, she sill loves, respects, and obeys them. this might confuse some readers, or make them angry, but for me...while i thought that i would never put up with that, yep somehow managed to put all the pain and suffering into words, and thats what makes you cry- the emotion that comes through. you must read this...while it is a tear-jerker, it somehow leaves you with a good feeling, and a sense o resolve.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Story, July 19, 2000

By 

"breezie870" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ribbons (Paperback)

i love Laurence Yep's books, and this one is no exception. I like how he is able to write about Chinese people without using any stereotypes at all. In this book, the main character has problems with her grandmother. She eventually solves them, but along the way discovers amny things about her heritage. This book is good for people who are interested in other cultures and for Chinese-Americans.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars connects the hearts of women across the world, April 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: ARC OF LOVE: An Anthology of Lesbian Love Poems (Hardcover)

This book runs the gamet of female emotions and tells us words we've all familiar with. For me, this book was very familiar. I was left nodding in agreement after quite a few poems. There are quite a few excellent poems but they are sadly balanced by a few un-poetic attempts to run words together in a seemingly poetic way.