Asian Pacific American Lit

Lin, Grace. 2009. WHERE THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE MOON. New York : Little, Brown and Co. ISBN 9780316114271


Minli and her parents are poor farmers. At the end of their long hard days working in the fields, Minli’s father entertains her by telling stories. Minli’s mother thinks the stories are foolishness. She wishes for a better life. One day Minli sets out on a mission to find the Man of the Moon and ask him how to change her family’s fortune. Along the way she meets a dragon, an orphan, a king, and wonderful family, all of whom have stories of their own and lessons to teach Minli.

The story unfolds by going back and forth between Minli’s fantastical adventures and the telling of folktales. Cultural markers include the names of characters. Minli means “quick thinking”. Other characters have Chinese names like Ye Ye and Wu Kang. Foods identify the culture, too. Minli often has rice and tea at meals, and uses chop sticks. Full-page color illustrations throughout the book, and simpler drawings at the beginning of each chapter depict Chinese landscapes, scenes and artifacts from the story. The dragon, kites, rice bowls, are among the drawings that add to the Chinese setting.

The characters in the story are very well developed. Minli’s mother starts out as discontented and resentful, wishing for a better life. After Minli leaves she gradually learns that what is really important is the love for her family. Minli, too, learns this lesson. She saw that the orphan’s existence was much more meager than her own, and that more than anything she wanted to be back with her family. Booklist gave WHERE THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE MOON a starred review and said, “Children will embrace this accessible, timeless story about the evil of greed and the joy of gratitude.”







Say, Allen. 1993. GRANDFATHER’S JOURNEY. Boston, MA : Houghton Mifflin, ISBN 0395570352

This book won the Caldecott medal. School Library Journal said its “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.” Grandfather’s Journey is the story of author Allen Say’s grandfather immigrating from Japan to the United States. In the beginning it shows the grandfather as a young man in traditional Japanese dress. He travels across the country and gets assimilated into American culture. He returns to Japan to marry his childhood sweetheart. Back and forth the grandfather goes between the United States and Japan.

This book will give children a peek into Japanese culture. On one page the grandfather sits on a cushion on the floor, in Japanese clothing, with bamboo shades in the background, a pot of tea by his side. On another, the grandfather and his bride pose for a wedding portrait, she in traditional Japanese kimono, and he in a European suit.

Both the author and his grandfather love both places. In the end Say expresses the sentiment that lies within his own heart as well as his grandfather’s, “The funny thing is, the moment I am in one country, I am homesick for the other.”






Yep, Laurence. 1997. Illustrated by Kam Mak. THE DRAGON PRINCE: A CHINESE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST TALE. New York : HarperCollins. ISBN 0060243813


Seven is the youngest daughter in a very poor family. When her father is captured by a powerful dragon, she agrees to marry the dragon to save her father’s life. She climbed on the dragon’s back, “…higher and farther the dragon raced, until the Milky Way wound its way across the night sky like an endless bolt of the whitest silk.” This kind of language sets the stage for quite a dramatic fantasy. The illustrations in the book add to the Asian setting by depicting the beautiful dragon, Chinese characters with dark eyes and hair, in traditional clothing.

Although the pictures are pretty and the language is interesting, the story is predictable from start to finish, and not very exciting in my opinion. Furthermore, I question the authenticity of the situation in which the father asks the daughter to marry the dragon to save his own life. This might have been an ancient Chinese custom, but certainly not one that would be considered realistic or acceptable today.

Native American Lit

Bruchac, Joseph. 2004. HIDDEN ROOTS. New York: Scholastic Press. ISBN 0439353580.


Eleven-year-old Sonny lives in a small town in the Adirondack Mountains, the only child in a troubled family. Sonny's father is angry and abusive to him and his mother. Uncle Louis teaches Sonny all about the secrets of the forest and the animals, but Sonny's dad doesn't like him hanging around. As the story unfolds, Sonny learns many things - why his dad is so angry, why Uncle Louis knows so much about the Abenaki Indians, and the true hidden roots of his family. The author's end note explains the 1930's Vermont Eugenics Project in which Abenaki people were routinely sterilized in an effort to keep their population down. Many Abenaki fled and hid their Indian ancestry as a result.


Connections


Talk about domestic violence, why it happened in this story, and what can be done when domestic violence occurs.


Discuss the extermination of the Jews in Europe during the Holocaust and the parallels with what the U.S. did to the Abenaki Indians during the Vermont Eugenics Project in the 1930's.


Research the Abenaki Indians and learn more about the tribe and its customs.

Alexie, Sherman. 2007. THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN. illustrated by Ellen Forney. New York: Little, Brown. ISBN 0316013684.

This 2007 winner of the National Book Award for Young People's Literature will have readers laughing out loud one minute and crying the next. It is a coming of age story about 14 year old Junior, a Spokane Indian who lives on a reservation he calls "the rez". Junior was born with hydrocephalus and loves to draw. " I think the world is a series of broken dams and floods, and my cartoons are tiny little lifeboats," he writes. Ellen Forney's drawings add humor to the already clever narrative. Both words and pictures describe life on the reservation where there is not much hope, and almost everyone drinks themselves into tragedy. This book provides a rare glimpse into what it is like to be a teenage American Indian growing up in present day America. A 2007 Publisher's Weekly review describes what separates this work from others, " Unlike protagonists in many YA novels who reclaim or retain ethnic ties in order to find their true selves, Junior must separate from his tribe in order to preserve his identity."

Connections:


Have children illustrate events of their own lives, both important ones and everyday, mundane ones.


Keep a journal for a period of time, include illustrations.


Research Spokane Indians to learn more about the tribe, its customs and its history. Discuss the impact these have on the current living conditions and circumstances of tribal members.


Discuss the effects of stereotyping in the story, and in our own lives.





Tingle, Tim. 2006. CROSSING BOK CHITTO; A CHOCTAW TALE OF FRIENDSHIP AND FREEDOM. Illustrated by Jeanne Rorex Bridges. El Paso, TX: Cinco Puntos Press. ISBN 0938317776

Martha Tom, a little Choctaw girl, and Little Mo, a young slave boy live on opposite sides of Bok Chitto River in Mississippi back in the days before the Trail of Tears. They become friends when Martha Tom gets lost on the slave side of the river and Little Mo helps her find her way home. The Choctaws have built a trail of stones across the river, just below the surface of the water. This trail helps save the lives of Little Mo's family as they flee the slave hunters. From the characters' clothing, to their dwellings, to the rich natural backdrop, Jeanne Rorex Bridges' illustrations add authenticity to the retelling of this history-filled, spiritual legend. A 2006 starred review in Booklist points out that CROSSING BOK CHITTO is a "... a picture book that highlights rarely discussed intersections between Native Americans in the South and African Americans in bondage."

Connections

Research and discuss the Trail of Tears.

Imagine what might have happened after the escape.

Read and discuss FOLLOW THE DRINKING GOURD and other slave escape stories.

Hispanic/Latino(a) Lit

Mora, Pat. 2010. DIZZY IN YOUR EYES: POEMS ABOUT LOVE. New York: Knopf. ISBN: 9780375843754

Pat Mora's collection of love poems for teens is written in a variety of poetic forms. School Library Journal says, "The love here is neither hot and heavy nor cliched, however, but rather a glimpse into the last remaining innocence of the teen years. At times, the narration even slips a bit astray from an authentically teenage voice. Those expecting a more typical raw, edgy approach to love with poetry akin to the ramblings of a teenager's journal will be better off elsewhere." Fifteen-year-old Georgia from Little Rock agrees. She critiques, "Some of the poems were pretty, like in 'You're Beautiful' where it says, "Like the green romance of a bud/ and lily's pink, gentle sway./ You: more beautiful than yesterday."...and 'Fortune Cookie' was cute because it told a little story. But mostly it just seemed like a grown up with a generic idea of what a teenager might be like, trying to sound like a teenager."

With the exception of "Oda a las maestras", the Spanish translation of "Ode to Teachers", there are not many cultural markers to identify this writing as Hispanic. In "Mirrors", one of the few poems in my opinion with a voice that rings teen, the narrator's Grandma says, "You're beautiful. Tan linda." The Spanish phrase is repeated effectively and sarcastically throughout - "...wide waist, Tan linda...my eyes that won't open wide/ and round like my sister's,/ that hypnotize guys./ Tan linda./ What does Grandma see?"

"Mariachi Fantasy" includes references to cholla cactus and mariachi dancing. "Valentine to Papi" includes the endearing term "Papi", "Remember, Papi, ten years ago?/ You smiled when you saw me/ wearing a new yellow dress." These cultural markers add interest and authenticity to the poems. Some are charming, but most were not exciting, or what I would expect a teen to enjoy.

Connections:

Read some of Pat Mora's other works.

Pair with Gary Soto's collection of love poems, PARTLY CLOUDY. Read, discuss and compare.

Try writing some love poetry about friends, family, pets, even inanimate objects like chocolate!

Try writing some of the forms of poetry included and described in the book.




Soto, Gary. 2009. PARTLY CLOUDY: POEMS OF LOVE AND LONGING. Boston : Harcourt. ISBN: 9780152063016

"Soto skillfully captures the voice and emotions of young teens in love.", so says School Library Journal, and I could not agree more. Divided into two sections, "A Girl's Tears, Her Songs" and "A Boy's Body, His Words", the love poems are told convincingly from the points of view of teen girls or boys. Some are happy, others are sad. "Consequences", a particularly thought-provoking one ponders, "With love, when it falls/ The rocks shoot sparks. Gossips/ Gather at the river's edge,/ Skipping stones across the water,/ Asking intently, "Who brought it down?"

Very few cultural markers identify this collection as Hispanic. In "Barriers", the narrator and her love are identified, "As I'm Japanese/ And you are Mexican,/ Both of us third generation./What do we know-/ Gracias, por favor,/ Arigato, sayonara."

"Neighborhood" describes a setting with gangs, though not necessarily Hispanic, - "But gangsta rap/ Behind the smoked windows/ of long squeaky cars,/And the long yellow grill on the face/ Of a thug leaning from/ The porch, calling, "Hey, baby." Gangs, again, come up in "Time", where the narrator is "Tired of the same cats in the Dumptser,/ Tired of blaring radios, of gangsters with their grills/". By and large, the collection will be universally accessible and enjoyable to most any teen, anywhere.

Connections:

Pair with Pat Mora's collection of love poems, DIZZY IN YOUR EYES. Read, discuss, compare.

Try writing poems from the point of view of the opposite sex.

Read other works by Gary Soto.

Write a love poem, maybe to a family member, friend or pet.

Ancona, George. 2010. ¡OLE! FLAMENCO. Boston : Harcourt. ISBN: 9780152063016

Author and photographer George Ancona has produced a book about flamenco song, dance and music that is both entertaining, informative and culturally authentic. A School Library Journal review says, "The book's strength lies with the balance of maps, text, and colorful photographs that emphasize the joy of music through performance and family tradition."

Ancona first explains the history of the art form and the people with whom it originated. These people, the Roma, eventually came to be known as Gypsies. "Some say the Roma were from Egypt. The name Gypsy comes from Egipto, the Spainish word for Egypt." Thus Ancona's history and geography lesson begins. He goes on to fully describe the music and dance, complete with colorful photographs of Spanish families and dancers, often with Spanish style courtyards and architecture in the background. Photographs depict full costumes with fringed shawls and long ruffled dresses.

Other cultural markers include Spanish names, instruments and phrases. "¡Olé! is a shout of approval and encouragement...And they all shout, '¡Olé!' when the boy gets up to dance...Calls of '¡Olé!' ring out and compliments fill the air. ¡Asi se canta!That's singing! ¡Asi se baila! That's dancing! ¡Asi se toca! That's playing!" From start to finish, readers will get a real feel for the culture surrounding flamenco.

Connections:

Listen to some flamenco music.

Create rhythms by clapping and drumming using different instruments.

Invite a guest flamenco dancer to perform and teach some of the moves. Shout '¡Olé!' as everyone tries.

Use a globe to locate Egypt and trace the migration of the art form and the people who have kept it alive.