Review: The Junior Thunder Lord by Laurence Yep

The Junior Thunder Lord by Laurence Yep

1.      BIBLIOGRAPHY

Yep, Laurence. 1994. The Junior Thunder Lord. Ill. by Robert Van Nutt. New York: BridgeWater Books. ISBN 0816734542

2.  PLOT SUMMARY

Yue, a salesman, must travel far away from his home to sell his goods. His village was under a terrible drought and his neighbors could not trade. While in Thunder County, he stumbles upon a crowd drumming to honor the thunder lords who help dragons bring rain to the land. In a noodle house, Yue offers food to Bear Face, a large man whom most villagers either fear or ignore. Bear Face offers to accompany Yue in thanks for his kindness. While on a ship, a storm blows in and the ship breaks apart. Bear Face throws Yue on his back, swims him to shore then saves the other passengers and Yue’s trade goods. Yue and Bear Face have become and Yue brings him home to his village. As Bear Face witnesses the drought in Yue’s village he becomes angry and shouts to his brothers in the sky for help. Bear Face is actually a junior thunder lord who was punished to live on the earth for insulting a dragon king. To repay Yue’s kindness, Bear Face brings him up to the clouds and shows him how to release the rain over his drought-burdened village. After that time, Yue’s village never suffered a drought again and Bear Face became a trusted friend to Yue and his family.

3.    CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Yep’s main purpose in re-telling this ancient Chinese legend is to remind his readers that “Those at the top should help those at the bottom.” The setting is based long ago, in a made up land, as seen in many fables from across the world. Yue is a moral and kind character and Bear Face, while originally made out to be a villain, redeems himself by repaying Yue’s kindness. Yep describes Bear Face as big, scowling, and hairy like a bear. His attitude frightens everyone in Thunder County except Yue, who remembers advice a friend gave him in school, that people should help the less fortunate.

Yep adds few cultural markers in his text to emphasize the Chinese culture. The entire story is based on the Chinese legend of the thunder lords, who “with their stone axes, they make the thunder and help the dragons bring rain.” Yue is introduced to junior thunder lord Bear Face due to food. Yue orders Chinese food: noodles at a restaurant for himself and Bear Face, and an additional meal of pork and dumplings.

According to Yep, The Junior Thunder Lord is based on a 17^th century Chinese fable by Pu Songling. Unfortunately, Yep does not provide any sources or references for further reading in his picture book. The addition of reference sources would have been helpful for readers interested in the sources of the Junior Thunder Lord legend.

The majority of the cultural markers and makers of cultural authenticity are located in the illustrations. Robert Van Nutt’s illustrations are beautiful, with rich glossy colors and traditional Chinese elements. Yue and his family have dark black hair, with Yue’s wife shown as having slightly paler skin than her son and husband and other characters have skin in varied shades. The characters have almond shaped, dark colored eyes. All the children shown in the pictures have shaved heads with a pony tail tied up in the back. The background villages and Chinese ship Yue sails on are extremely detailed and accurate to the time period and location the story is based upon. Some of the most striking images are the Chinese dragons drawn with fierce teeth, golden scales and red bellies. The drums of the villagers and thunder lords are bright red and gold, looking very much like the coloring of the dragons.

The Junior Thunder Lord would be an excellent picture book for young children interested in Chinese myths and legends.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

Positive review in Publisher’s Weekly: “Yep (The Man Who Tricked a Ghost) here gracefully wraps a 17th-century Chinese fable in a zestful style that speaks immediately to readers and vivifies its moral-that "those at the top should help those at the bottom."

Positive review in School Library Journal: “The quality of the artwork is undercut, however, by the lack of variation in the basic features of all but the main characters. While this detracts somewhat from the book, the story is well written and will appeal to a wide audience.”

5. CONNECTIONS

* Other Chinese fables and fairy tales from Laurence Yep:

The Dragon Prince: A Chinese Beauty and the Beast Tale. ISBN 9780064435185

The Shell Woman and the King: A Chinese Folktale. ISBN 9780803713949

Tiger Woman. ISBN 9780816734658

The Boy Who Swallowed Snakes. ISBN 9780590461689

                       

Review: The Year of the Rat

The Year of the Rat by Grace Lin

1.      BIBLIOGRAPHY

Lin, Grace. 2008. The Year of the Rat. New York: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 9780316114264

2.  PLOT SUMMARY

The Year of the Rat continues the story of Grace Lin, begun in the novel The Year of the Dog. Grace, known in her Taiwanese home as Pacy, celebrates Chinese New Year. It is also the Year of the Rat, which means a year of changes ahead. Grace is one of the only Asian children at her New York school and is best friends with Melody, who is also Asian. Melody has to move away from Grace across the country to California and Grace is upset and worried about being alone. During the Year of the Rat, Grace has to deal with many changes: Melody moving, angst about her artistic talent and future as an author/illustrator, ignorance of her classmates regarding the Asian culture. The biggest change is the arrival of Dun-Wei, whose family moves into Melody’s old house. Grace is at first resentful and wary of Dun-Wei, snubbing him and neglecting to protect him from the bullying of other students. Eventually, Grace and Dun-Wei become friends and survive the Year of the Rat. 

3.    CRITICAL ANALYSIS

The Year of the Rat is a young adult novel based partly on author Grace Lin’s childhood, as indicated in her author’s note. The character of Grace struggles with her identity and what it means to be Asian in a town where she is a clear minority. Her parents are from Taiwan but most of her classmates believe Grace is from China especially since she celebrates Chinese New Year. She also struggles with 2 different names: Her American name of Grace and her Chinese/Taiwanese name of Pacy. Lin puts so much emotion into her text that the reader is able to feel Grace’s confusion and worry over her future. While at school, Grace’s classmates automatically pair her up with Dun-Wei simply because they are both Asian, and make unintentionally racist remarks at times.

Lin fills every page with authentic and accurate representations of elements found in the Asian culture. The story begins and ends with Chinese New Year, covering events occurring over the course of a year in between the 2 celebrations. During the Chinese New Year celebrations, Grace, her family, and friends have a feast: pork, duck, noodles eaten with chop sticks, silver fish, rice, bird’s nest soup, fried dumplings, vegetables, and steamed buns. Following the large meal, everyone is required to stay up late to greet the New Year. According to Grace’s father, “The longer you stay awake, the longer lives you will have.” The importance of food is emphasized again during a wedding feast where “chicken symbolizes the phoenix” which is the bride and “lobster symbolizes the dragon” which is the groom.

Every few chapters, Grace’s mother or father tell different stories related to Chinese mythology or personal tales from their lives before they left Taiwan and how difficult it was fitting into a new culture when they first arrived in America. The origin of the 12 animals represented during Chinese New Year, and how the rat beat out all the animals to be first is explained in humorous detail. A large section of the book is dedicated to the wedding of Grace’s cousin Clifford, presenting an opportunity for Lin to explore the mixing of American and Taiwanese marriage traditions. Grace, a sister and her mother wear high-collared silk Chinese dresses while another sister wears a typical American flower girl gown.  The bride, Lian, is married in a traditional white dress, but changes into her own Chinese silk gown for the reception at a Chinese restaurant. Finally, Clifford and Lian ask Grace and her sisters to jump on their hotel room bed before they sleep, as part of a cultural ritual to insure they may someday have their own children.

Lin includes her own brief pen and ink sketches scattered on every page or so over the course of the book. They are meant to be interpretations of events from the character of Grace as she writes about the Year of the Rat. Lin’s family portrait at the beginning of the book shows happy, smiling children and parents, all with dark hair and eyes. In other sketches, the girls are drawn wearing Chinese dresses covered in dragons and a phoenix.

You couldn’t find a better book to represent the challenges and triumphs of a young Taiwanese girl who is just trying to fit in with her classmates while still maintaining a respect for her Asian culture. Young girls will especially empathize with situations like losing a best friend, school stressors, and middle school crushes.

4. AWARDS & REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

CCBC Choice, 2007Washington Post Kid's Book of the Week, 2008

Positive review in Paper Tigers: “This book is a real gem, and we would welcome seeing Pacy again one of these Chinese Zodiac years.”

Positive review in School Library Journal: “Lin's plentiful detailed line drawings add to the story's appeal. This heartwarming sequel will leave readers hoping for more about this engaging heroine and her family.”

Positive review in Kirkus:” Readers of this gentle, appealing sequel will appreciate the way the engaging protagonist discovers she can survive the changes a new year brings.”

5. CONNECTIONS

* Use The Year of the Rat to discuss the difficulty of fitting in to 2 different cultures.

* Educator’s Guide for The Year of the Rat provided by Grace Lin: http://www.gracelinbooks.com/files/Year_of_The_Rat_EduGuide.pdf

* Other young adult books from Grace Lin:

The Year of the Dog. ISBN 9780316060028 (Prequel to The Year of the Rat)

Dumpling Days. ISBN 9780316125901 (Third book in the Pacy Lin series)

* Young Adult books based on the Asian culture:

Kadohata, Cynthia. Weedflower. ISBN 9781416975663

Lai, Thanhha. Inside Out and Back Again. ISBN 9780061962783

Park, Linda Sue. When My Name was Keoko. ISBN 9780547722399

Review: Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say

Grandfather’s Journey by Allen Say

1.      BIBLIOGRAPHY

Say, Allen. 1993. Grandfather’s Journey. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0395570352

2.  PLOT SUMMARY

Grandfather’s Journey is the story of Allen Say’s grandfather, as he leaves Japan to visit new places around the United States of America. After spending 3 weeks traveling to America by steamship, he took a train, riverboat, and walked everywhere. Grandfather explored the Southwest, the Midwest, and mountains, finally settling in California. Eventually, he returned to Japan to marry his sweetheart, bringing her back to San Francisco to raise their daughter. Many years later, and overcome with homesickness, Grandfather brought his wife and daughter back to Japan to live in the city. Say’s mother met and married his father in Japan, where Say was born. Although he enjoyed his life in Japan, Grandfather missed living in California. When bombs destroyed their house in the city, Grandfather and Grandmother moved back to the small village where they grew up. Grandfather’s stories inspired Say to move to California when he was grown.  

3.    CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Grandfather’s Journey explores themes of immigration and homesickness, but in a way that would be easily understood by children. Allen Say discusses a common occurrence with immigrants, which is the love they have for their home country as well as their adopted country. Grandfather expresses wonder and amazement at the different landscapes and people he finds in America. Although grandfather fell in love with the California coast after exploring much of the United States, he returned to Japan in order to marry his childhood sweetheart (Say’s grandmother). Once grandfather had a daughter of his own, he wanted to raise her back in Japan, where he grew up. The action shifts back and forth between Japan and America as grandfather, his family, and finally Say himself move from place to place and between 2 distinct cultures.

Cultural markers are sparse in the text, but Say does emphasize the love of birds his grandfather has, both in California and Japan. Grandfather kept songbirds in his home in California, so he wouldn’t forget the beauty of his home in Japan. He also briefly touches on the destruction of Japan during World War 2, but without details that may disturb younger readers, saying instead, “Bombs fell from the sky and scattered our lives like leaves in a storm.” There are no mentions of first names or dialects, celebrations, foods, or descriptions of Say’s family. Say very clearly emphasizes that this is the personal story of his grandfather’s experience coming from Japan, and is not simply a generic immigration centered on the Asian culture.

Say’s illustrations show the love and respect he has for his grandfather’s story. These images are where the majority of cultural markers for the Japanese culture exist.

The first image of Say’s grandfather shows him in traditional Japanese dress, while the second image is grandfather wearing “European clothes” for the first time while crossing the Pacific Ocean. Each picture Say created for his book looks like a posed photograph, and all characters appear quite solemn and serious. It is as if Say took photographs from an album and painted the images exactly. In later images with Say’s grandmother and mother, they are all wearing American dresses, shoes, and hairstyles. However, once the story moves back to Japan, Say illustrates his grandparents wearing Japanese styles once again. The clothing, hairstyles, and architecture are all accurately represented in the illustrations as being pre-World War 2. Say paints lovely backgrounds and landscapes, showing he clearly relishes illustrating his family’s story and the locations they treasured the most.

Allen Say writes a moving narrative of his grandfather’s travels between Japan and California and how it inspired his own move from Yokohama, Japan to California. As Say writes, “The funny thing is, the moment I am in one country, I am homesick for the other.”

4. AWARDS & REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

Caldecott Medal Winner, 2004

Positive review in Publisher’s Weekly: “The tranquility of the art and the powerfully controlled prose underscore the profundity of Say's themes, investing the final line with an abiding, aching pathos: "The funny thing is, the moment I am in one country, I am homesick for the other."

Positive review in School Library Journal: “A personal history of three generations of the author's family that points out the emotions that are common to the immigrant experience. Splendid, photoreal watercolors have the look of formal family portraits or candid snapshots, all set against idyllic landscapes in Japan and in the U.S.”

Positive review in Kirkus: “Lovely, quiet- -with a tenderness and warmth new to this fine illustrator's work.”

5. CONNECTIONS

* Other picture books by Allen Say:

Kamishibai Man. ISBN 9780618479542

Erika-San. ISBN 9780618889334

Tea with Milk. ISBN 9780547237473

The Boy in the Garden. ISBN 0547214103

Tree of Cranes. ISBN 9780547248301