Book Review: AMERICAN BORN CHINESE

Book Review, Genre 6, AMERICAN BORN CHINESE

Author: Gene Luen Yang

Title: American Born Chinese

Illustrator: Gene Luen Yang

Publisher: First Second

Publication Date: 2006

ISBN: 9781596431522

Plot summary: A graphic novel that alternates between three interrelated stories about the problems of young Chinese Americans trying to participate in popular culture.

Critical analysis: I am not very familiar with the graphic novel genre. I wasn’t sure which book to review for this blog until I heard American Born Chinese mentioned in a The Librarian Is In podcast by the New York Public Library. One of the podcast hosts said American Born Chinese was the best graphic novel he had ever read. I thought that if it was good enough for a New York Public librarian, it was good enough for me! Since reading American Born Chinese, I have checked out several other graphic novels to test the waters, so to speak. I’m still not comfortable with the genre, but I do appreciate it.

Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese offers striking visuals while weaving together three seemingly different stories. Each story line is separated by a lone red drawing on a stark white page, letting the reader know who’s story is next: the Monkey King, Jin, or Danny. It’s not until the reader is 200+ pages in that the three separate stories suddenly transform into one – in text and in illustrations.

Each of the three stories provide believable and entertaining plots of quests to accomplish, friendships to grow, and obstacles to overcome. The settings of the stories are either in China or in America and each story has a universal theme that transcends time and place leaving the reader contemplating their own family history and asking how they show love to family members.

Author Yang’s writing style is humorous and his illustrations enforce the humor, especially the pouty faces of the Monkey King. Readers might find the exaggerated Chinese stereotype language of cousin Chin-Kee shocking at first (“Harro Amellica!” p. 48, or “Would Cousin Da-Nee rike to tly Chin-Kee’s clispy flied cat gizzards wiff noodle?” p. 114) but then the reader gets the joke.

I thought it interesting that American Born Chinese was the first graphic novel to be recognized by the Michael L. Printz Committee.

Review excerpt:

• 2006 National Book Award, finalist
• 2006 Cybils Awards, winner
• 2007 Michael L. Printz Award, winner
• 2007 James Cook Book Award, honorable book
• 2007 White Ravens Award, winner

• Booklist, Sept. 1, 2006 (Vol. 103, No. 1), by Jesse Karp: With vibrant colors and visual panache, indie writer-illustrator Yang (Rosary Comic Book) focuses on three characters in tales that touch on facets of Chinese American life. Jin is a boy faced with the casual racism of fellow students and the pressure of his crush on a Caucasian girl; the Monkey King, a character from Chinese folklore, has attained great power but feels he is being held back because of what the gods perceive as his lowly status; and Danny, a popular high-school student, suffers through an annual visit from his cousin Chin-Kee, a walking, talking compendium of exaggerated Chinese stereotypes.

• Children’s Literature by Susie Wilde: Yang’s graphic stories skip around from the disgusting to the sublime, his tongue firmly in his cheek as he illustrates first love, booger-eating, bullying, friendship, and shame. He uses subtle coloring and bolded text to emphasize his points. As you read you see the connection of all the characters who fight their way out of the boxes designed for them by others. The contemporary stories and the fable come together in terms of plot and theme as the characters enter each others stories, revealing and transforming themselves as the tales merge.

• Publishers Weekly: Yang accomplishes the remarkable feat of practicing what he preaches with this book: accept who you are and you'll already have reached out to others. 

Connections:

• Other books by author and illustrator Gene Luen Yang:

1. Level Up, ISBN: 9781596432352
2. The Shadow Hero, ISBN: 9781596436978
3. The Eternal Smile: Three Stories, ISBN: 9781596431560
4. Boxers, ISBN: 9781596433595
5. Saints, ISBN: 9781596436893
6. Animal Crackers, ISBN: 9781593621834

• Students can view author Yang’s video podcasts at http://geneyang.com/reading-without-walls-video-podcast
• Readers can learn more about author Yang by visiting his web site: http://geneyang.com/

Bibliography

Cover, Mount Juliet, Tennessee. Personal photograph by Amy Wilson. November 27, 2016.

Yang, Gene Luen. American Born Chinese. New York: First Second, 2006.9781596431522