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