American Born Chinese

Author: Gene Luen Yang

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This is a cross between a graphical novel and a manga style comic with simple, firm illustrations and a complex layered story. It is a relatively quick read but is certainly not a light weight with over 230 pages and a larger format. Jin Wang is a young teenager whose parents are Chinese immigrants. He quickly discovers that Asian looking boys face a number of challenges at school. An older lady tells him “It is easy to become anything you wish…so long as you’re willing to forfeit your soul”. He betrays his heritage and decides to simply try to blend in, with unfortunate results.

This could have been a somewhat didactic tale with little chance of engaging its readers… instead it is told in a fascinating and initially bewildering way. We end up with three alternating threads of a story. First there is the story from Chinese mythology about the Monkey King and his aspirations to be accepted as a god like other gods. Then we see various events in the life of Jin Wang as a younger teen… and this is interspersed with stories from his life as an older, now very Caucasian teenager. Bizarrely he is visited for one month in each year by a “cousin from China” who is an outrageous caricature with a pigtail, round glasses, huge round face, amorous intent and boundless cleverness.

It is not clear till the end of the story what is really going on… and I shan’t be giving away any secrets here! The tale is poignant and thought provoking. It contains a real challenge to respect one's own heritage and maintain personal integrity.

 I was also rather astonished to find a whole slab of Psalm 139 quoted in the mouth of one of the Chinese gods, and a visit by a Chinese sage to the baby Jesus. At the very least I would have to put this down to 21st Century intertextuality, but others may see a deeper meaning.

Despite the disarming pictures of monkeys, this is a complex story that requires thought and interpretation… perhaps best for Year Eight and up.


Andrew Lack

The Paradise Garden

Author: Colin Thompson

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The Paradise Garden is a richly illustrated book ostensibly for younger readers… if you are going to measure by the limited amount of text and simple storyline. However the only character Peter is not a little boy: he looks more like Year Seven than Year Three. Moreover his story is actually about running away from home, and this is presented as a good, even vital thing for him to have done.


I would be much more comfortable giving this book to an older student (Year Seven and up) who either had a strong visual bent, or who needed a story with not too many words. Another great way the book could be used would be to support someone who was having an unhappy time: a book like this provides great cues for talking about unhappiness, and suggests by metaphor ways to cope.


The story follows Peter whose home and neighbourhood are noisy and upsetting due to arguments, and whose heart is lonely because his parents have split up. He tells his Mum he is going on holiday with his Dad, but actually goes and camps out in botanical garden in the middle of the city. Here he finds a time of respite and healing. He eventually goes back home determined to take some of the garden with him so that he can find peace at home.


The outstanding feature of the book is the intricate and intriguing illustrations. Each page is filled with detail, factual and fantastic. As Peter is walking home through the bare winter trees, a family of hedgehogs is trailing him through the grass, but at the same time on a branch that frames the page, a tiny wooden house has been built with smoke pouring out of the chimney, and a toy biplane about the size of a grain of rice is revealed trapped in one of the trees.


This book will satisfy someone who loves to pore over pages delving into tiny detail in illustrations… and at the same time is a poignant reminder of the pain some children carry inside themselves.


Andrew Lack
Head of the Odell Learning Resources Centre

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

 by Brian Selznick

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A young boy lives alone in a secret room in a French railway station. He creeps around oiling and maintaining the many clocks, just as his uncle taught him to do. However, his passion is the gradual repair of a wonderful automaton or mechanical robot. He hopes when it finally works that it will write a message from his father. Intrigued already? There is no magic or fantasy in this chunky book, but it is full of fantastical ideas and the reader becomes very involved in the lives of a family that this boy meets, a family with its own secrets.


The story progresses in two ways. Some of it is told in a clear narrative form, but many pages consist entirely of drawings. It is neither an illustrated novel nor a graphical novel, rather moves in and out of the different genres. The illustrations are wonderful!


While we stay mostly engaged with the story of Hugo and his search for a message from his father, the author weaves in the story of Georges Méliès, a ground breaking French filmmaker. This is a very different reading experience, and would suite middle school and up. While there is a positive ending, Hugo experiences many disappointments, challenges and betrayals along the way.