Dragon Parade: A Chinese New Year Story (Stories of America) (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 2-4-- Norman Ah Sing, a young Chinese man, leaves his homeland for the Land of the Golden Mountain--San Francisco. Within a year, he has established a successful grocery store. For the New Year Celebration, he organizes a Dragon Parade and a feast to share his customs with the people of San Francisco. A footnote gives a synopsis of the Lunar New Year and states that "Norman Ah Sing organized the first big celebration," in 1851. With this implied factual basis for the story, the omissions and half-truths combine to present a superficial picture. While there were certainly opportunities for hardworking and prudent men to make money in those heady Gold Rush days, it seems as though Norman, said to have left his homeland due to hard economic times, was able to establish a well-stocked grocery store upon arrival. How did he pay for it? Where did he get the supplies? Some of the problems are the fault of Tseng's illustrations, which, while attractive, are sometimes implausible. Chinese women are pictured twice as richly dressed, and in the banquet scene one is chatting companionably with an elegant white woman. Chinatown in 1851 was a bachelor society. The rare wife would have shielded herself from the public, and it is unlikely that she would have sat willingly among non-Chinese. And how did Norman, immersed in the insularity of Chinatown, learn to set a table with knives and forks? He also serves a "whole fried chicken," something even today's deep fryers would find challenging. Even young children deserve an accurate historical background for their stories. --Carla Kozak, San Francisco Public Library
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Paperback: 32 pages
• Publisher: Steck-Vaughn (October 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811480550
• ISBN-13: 978-0811480550
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 8 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,495,689 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars a multi-cultural children's book, October 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Dragon Parade: A Chinese New Year Story (Stories of America) (Library Binding)

I added this book to my project for multi-cultural children's book in the class for children's literature. The text shows how chinese people get ready for New Year and it, inviting poeple home with a lot of food, putting read papaer in the house, or putting on a new clothe. It is so fun to see what they do looking at the colorful pictures. It does not contain historical background in detail;however, it is a good children's book to introduce children to other culture and evoke their interest.