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Very young children learn faster from picture books that contain colour photographs than from books with colour drawin... More
Summary: Gim Lew Yep is 10 years old and lives in China. It is 1922 and his father has returned from America to prepare Gim Lew for life in the new world. This is not going to be easy. Gim Lew is left handed and stutters when excited or afraid. If Gim Lew cannot pass the rigorous tests given to all immigrants, he will be sent back to China. Gim Lew’s father and friends tutored him Lew on the passage from China to California. The future of Gim Lew’s family, in China and America, hangs in the balance. This is a middle-grade chapter book about a young boy's emigration from China to America.
Type of Reading: bedtime story, family reading, anytime reading, middle grade reader, independent reading, read aloud book
Recommended Age: read together: 8 to 12; read yourself: 9 to 12
Big Kid Reaction: This is a well-done story. Although this book focuses on Chinese immigration to America, it recounts how hard, painful, and complex the immigration process is and how vulnerable to the whims of bureaucracy are those seeking a new life in a new country.
Pros: Even though this story is set 1922, it has relevance today as it recounts the effort, danger, courage, and heartbreak that immigrants experience as they try to provide a better life for themselves and their children.
Cons: None.
Borrow or Buy: Buy! This is a powerful story with solid characters and a strong plot. The immigration and cross-generational themes, as well as the historical context, create a wonderful mosaic.
Educational Themes: This story focuses on the immigration of Chinese citizens to California in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The purpose for immigration, then and now, is to earn money to send back home for the family. This story provides insight of the process from an immigrant’s point of view.
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