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stephenhongsohn.livejournal.comAsian American Literature Fans – Megareview for April 21, 2013
In this post, reviews of Kashmira Sheth’s My Dadima Wears a Sari (illustrated by Yoshiko Jaeggi) (Peachtree Publishers, 2007) and Kashmira Sheth’s Monsoon Afternoon (illustrated by Yoshiko Jaeggi (Peachtree Publishers, 2008); Paul Yee’s What Happened This Summer (Tradewind Books, 2006); Elsie Chapman’s Dualed (Random House Books for Young Readers, 2013); and Justina Chen Headley’s Return to Me (Little Brown Books for Young Readers, 2013).
A Review of Kashmira Sheth’s My Dadima Wears a Sari (illustrated by Yoshiko Jaeggi) (Peachtree Publishers, 2007) and Monsoon Afternoon (illustrated by Yoshiko Jaeggi (Peachtree Publishers, 2008).
It’s been awhile since I reviewed any children’s picture books and I recently had a chance to read the gorgeously illustrated and spirited narratives found in the collaborative publications produced by Yoshiko Jaeggi and Kashmira Sheth out of Peachtree Publishers. Sheth has already been reviewed on Asian American literature fans; please see, for instance, pylduck’s post on Sheth’s (and Pearce’s) most recent offering:
http://asianamlitfans.livejournal.com/141128.html
The picture book form is reliant upon a delicate balance between text and illustration. Jaeggi’s work in both books is absolutely exquisite; it seems as though the pictures have been produced in watercolor, giving both books a kind of dream-like quality that is perhaps perfect for the youthful reader. My Dadima Wears a Sari gives Sheth an opportunity to explore the cross-cultural and transnational dynamics of the titular piece of clothing. Here, the more Americanized young children, presumably of South Asian descent, receive a lesson from their “dadima” (a Gujarati term for grandmother) about the nature and personal history of her saris. As with other books that explore race and ethnicity, these children’s narratives are instructional in their approach, giving young readers the chance to understand what might be to them a foreign culture, but at the same time, Sheth and Jaeggi’s work will appeal to ethnically specific populations as well, who might be dealing with youth undergoing acculturation. This particular book also has a fun addition at the end, showing young readers how a sari can be worn. Whereas My Dadima Wears a Sari takes place the United States, Monsoon Afternoon is set in India. In that story, a young boy asks various members of his family to go outside and play, but everyone seems to be busy except for his grandfather, otherwise known as “dadaji.” The narrative thus reveals their bonding time on the arrival of the monsoon season. Here, the pedagogical conceit appears in the guise of the difference in weather patterns and Sheth does take time to explain the importance of the monsoon to her personal life in an author’s note the surfaces at the conclusion of this picture book.
Buy the Books Here:
http://www.amazon.com/Monsoon-Afternoon-Kashmira-Sheth/dp/1561454559/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1364148646&sr=8-4&keywords=kashmira+sheth
http://www.amazon.com/Dadima-Wears-Sari-Kashmira-Sheth/dp/1561453927/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1364148646&sr=8-7&keywords=kashmira+sheth
A Review of Paul Yee’s What Happened This Summer (Tradewind Books, 2006).
We reviewed a number of Paul Yee titles on Asian American literature fans, including some of his children’s books and a handful of his young adult titles. Plyduck’s latest review of a Paul Yee title was Ghost Train, posted here:
http://asianamlitfans.livejournal.com/152518.html
What Happened This Summer is part of Yee’s work in the young adult genre; this publication is a curious one insofar as it is not listed as a collection of short stories or a novel per se, though it seems to be marketed as a general fictional work (set primarily in and around Vancouver, Canada). Since characters do recur across the stories, it seems best described as a story cycle or sequence. Because all of the stories are told in the first person perspective and most from the viewpoint of a Chinese Canadian youth, there is a kind of repetitive quality to the work that can detract from the important political contexts that Yee aims to convey. Indeed, the strength of What Happened This Summer is the thematic focus on generational ruptures between parents and their children, the lack of community building among immigrant youth, and the general malaise facing individuals as they struggle to acculturate to a new land and place. Yee is deft at weaving in particular historical and social contexts, including histories of Chinese migration, the continuing tensions among Hong Kong, Taiwan and China, the rise of China as a global economic power, and the ever-present lens of suspicion cast upon Asian immigrants due to emerging viruses from that region (like SARS). The strongest stories show Yee’s attentive consideration of form: one story employs the journal format and enhances the distinctiveness of its teenage narrator. In another, the narrator is studying for the TOEFL exam and finds himself struggling with the proper use of articles and Yee draws attention to the terrain of language as a kind of minefield, especially as certain words become bolded. For those looking for a grittier depiction of Chinese Canadian teenagers, Yee’s What Happened This Summer is certainly a good choice.
Buy the Book Here:
http://www.amazon.com/What-Happened-this-Summer-Paul/dp/1896580882/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363157361&sr=8-1&keywords=what+happened+this+summer
A Review of Elsie Chapman’s Dualed (Random House Books for Young Readers, 2013).
Elsie Chapman’s debut novel Dualed leads us back into the young adult fiction world in the subgenre known as the paranormal urban fantasy romance. Our narrator is West Grayer, a teenage girl, who lives in a speculative fictional world, Kersh, in which each individual is born with a double living in another city. Yes, there are TWO of each individual living in the same fictional world. Once these individuals reach a certain age, the Alts must battle to the death. The one that survives is called a Complete. Of course, everything isn’t so simple with the process. There are Strikers, assassins hired to help kill off one’s Alt. Those with more money and living in better areas inevitably have higher rates of completion. West Grayer, as we might expect, is an underdog. Her parents are dead; her siblings have in one way or another either been killed by their alts or have been accidentally killed. Her closest friend, Chord, completes, but West loses her brother Luc when he gets inadvertently drawn into the combat. Chapman’s premise is first-rate for the simple fact that it is so philosophical. How does one go about killing the person that looks exactly like oneself? Will that other person hold the same values, the same motivations? The amazon page takes the issue a little bit further by asking the question about the world itself in which children and teens are pitted against each other along with the tagline that assumes that the one that survives is “more worthy.” This moniker is interesting insofar as it suggests that the individual who is more efficient and skilled at killing the other is better. What kind of society would this be? This question is never actually fully explored in the novel. We get a sense of a shadowy governing system known as the Board, but we do not know why they devised this system or if indeed they are the ones in actual power. Fortunately, Chapman has at least one more novel in this series coming out, tentatively entitled Divided. Given the rather definitive ending of this novel, it will be interesting to see what road Chapman takes. In terms of the broader subgenre that we’ve reviewed here, Dualed would pair incredibly well with Zhang’s What’s Left of Me. The cultural critic in me can’t help but think a little bit imaginatively about these two writers and their fictional worlds, both which involve characters who ultimately have to deal with a kind of split in the self. Are we not in some kind of metaphorical consideration of Asian American identity? Haha! Yea, a bit of a stretch, but Chapman leaves enough room in her physical descriptions of West to wonder if there is a racial background to be discerned. Indeed, in these speculative fictional worlds, it is the question of social difference which remains a question mark and the intellectual work we must do to yoke such worlds to our own.
Buy the Book Here:
http://www.amazon.com/Dualed-Elsie-Chapman/dp/0307931544/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1364621649&sr=1-1&keywords=elsie+chapman
A Review of Justina Chen Headley’s Return to Me (Little Brown Books for Young Readers, 2013).
Though I have a great love for the young adult/ paranormal/ urban/ romance/ fantasy genre, as demonstrated by my incessant reading of authors like Melissa de la Cruz, Yvonne Woon, Malinda Lo, and others, there is something absolutely refreshing about reading a YA fiction that is not so steeped in the supernatural. To be sure, Headley, perhaps in a nod to the shift in the speculative, does give her some of these characters a kind of sixth-sense, an ability at times to see visions that will mark the future (an intuitional skill arguably). Yet, Headley’s focus has always been—in this fourth novel as in her three previous ones—to contour the quite complicated nature of adolescent maturity. In Return to Me, our protagonist and first person narrator is Rebecca Muir, an aspiring teenage architect living in Seattle, who has just been accepted to Columbia University. When her father receives a promotion in the New York City area, all seems perfectly aligned for her entire family to stay together, which also includes a devoted mother and a rambunctious younger brother (named Reid). Not all is so perfect of course. Rebecca (also nicknamed Reb, or Rebel) is in a serious relationship (with Jackson) and must consider whether or not to continue it. With counsel from her father, she decides to give it a shot, but the novel immediately shifts gears once they have arrived in New York. Reb’s Dad is away on a business trip and does not answer his phone; they soon discover that he is having an affair and that he is separating from their mother. Headley thus uses this novel to explore how one family recovers and heals from this kind of rift and the process is not entirely graceful. For instance, Reb’s mother must find a new identity to carve out in light of the fact that she may be forced to find another source of income in order to finance Reb’s schooling. Reb herself reconsiders the importance of Jackson in her life and whether or not she really wants to attend Columbia. Finally, Reb’s grandfather suggests they all retreat to Hawaii, with an opportunity to restore and rejuvenate. When the family does relocate for a period, Headley’s characters begin to see their rebirths. I always appreciate Headley’s novels because she manages that rare balance: to provide her characters with closure, while not succumbing to an excessively sentimental ending. Another engaging YA fiction.
Buy the Book Here:
http://www.amazon.com/Return-Me-Justina-Chen/dp/0316102555/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1364401738&sr=8-1&keywords=justina+chen
In this post, reviews of Kashmira Sheth’s My Dadima Wears a Sari (illustrated by Yoshiko Jaeggi) (Peachtree Publishers, 2007) and Kashmira Sheth’s Monsoon Afternoon (illustrated by Yoshiko Jaeggi (Peachtree Publishers, 2008); Paul Yee’s What Happened This Summer (Tradewind Books, 2006); Elsie Chapman’s Dualed (Random House Books for Young Readers, 2013); and Justina Chen Headley’s Return to Me (Little Brown Books for Young Readers, 2013).
A Review of Kashmira Sheth’s My Dadima Wears a Sari (illustrated by Yoshiko Jaeggi) (Peachtree Publishers, 2007) and Monsoon Afternoon (illustrated by Yoshiko Jaeggi (Peachtree Publishers, 2008).
It’s been awhile since I reviewed any children’s picture books and I recently had a chance to read the gorgeously illustrated and spirited narratives found in the collaborative publications produced by Yoshiko Jaeggi and Kashmira Sheth out of Peachtree Publishers. Sheth has already been reviewed on Asian American literature fans; please see, for instance, pylduck’s post on Sheth’s (and Pearce’s) most recent offering:
http://asianamlitfans.livejournal.com/141128.html
The picture book form is reliant upon a delicate balance between text and illustration. Jaeggi’s work in both books is absolutely exquisite; it seems as though the pictures have been produced in watercolor, giving both books a kind of dream-like quality that is perhaps perfect for the youthful reader. My Dadima Wears a Sari gives Sheth an opportunity to explore the cross-cultural and transnational dynamics of the titular piece of clothing. Here, the more Americanized young children, presumably of South Asian descent, receive a lesson from their “dadima” (a Gujarati term for grandmother) about the nature and personal history of her saris. As with other books that explore race and ethnicity, these children’s narratives are instructional in their approach, giving young readers the chance to understand what might be to them a foreign culture, but at the same time, Sheth and Jaeggi’s work will appeal to ethnically specific populations as well, who might be dealing with youth undergoing acculturation. This particular book also has a fun addition at the end, showing young readers how a sari can be worn. Whereas My Dadima Wears a Sari takes place the United States, Monsoon Afternoon is set in India. In that story, a young boy asks various members of his family to go outside and play, but everyone seems to be busy except for his grandfather, otherwise known as “dadaji.” The narrative thus reveals their bonding time on the arrival of the monsoon season. Here, the pedagogical conceit appears in the guise of the difference in weather patterns and Sheth does take time to explain the importance of the monsoon to her personal life in an author’s note the surfaces at the conclusion of this picture book.
Buy the Books Here:
http://www.amazon.com/Monsoon-Afternoon-Kashmira-Sheth/dp/1561454559/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1364148646&sr=8-4&keywords=kashmira+sheth
http://www.amazon.com/Dadima-Wears-Sari-Kashmira-Sheth/dp/1561453927/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1364148646&sr=8-7&keywords=kashmira+sheth
A Review of Paul Yee’s What Happened This Summer (Tradewind Books, 2006).
We reviewed a number of Paul Yee titles on Asian American literature fans, including some of his children’s books and a handful of his young adult titles. Plyduck’s latest review of a Paul Yee title was Ghost Train, posted here:
http://asianamlitfans.livejournal.com/152518.html
What Happened This Summer is part of Yee’s work in the young adult genre; this publication is a curious one insofar as it is not listed as a collection of short stories or a novel per se, though it seems to be marketed as a general fictional work (set primarily in and around Vancouver, Canada). Since characters do recur across the stories, it seems best described as a story cycle or sequence. Because all of the stories are told in the first person perspective and most from the viewpoint of a Chinese Canadian youth, there is a kind of repetitive quality to the work that can detract from the important political contexts that Yee aims to convey. Indeed, the strength of What Happened This Summer is the thematic focus on generational ruptures between parents and their children, the lack of community building among immigrant youth, and the general malaise facing individuals as they struggle to acculturate to a new land and place. Yee is deft at weaving in particular historical and social contexts, including histories of Chinese migration, the continuing tensions among Hong Kong, Taiwan and China, the rise of China as a global economic power, and the ever-present lens of suspicion cast upon Asian immigrants due to emerging viruses from that region (like SARS). The strongest stories show Yee’s attentive consideration of form: one story employs the journal format and enhances the distinctiveness of its teenage narrator. In another, the narrator is studying for the TOEFL exam and finds himself struggling with the proper use of articles and Yee draws attention to the terrain of language as a kind of minefield, especially as certain words become bolded. For those looking for a grittier depiction of Chinese Canadian teenagers, Yee’s What Happened This Summer is certainly a good choice.
Buy the Book Here:
http://www.amazon.com/What-Happened-this-Summer-Paul/dp/1896580882/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363157361&sr=8-1&keywords=what+happened+this+summer
A Review of Elsie Chapman’s Dualed (Random House Books for Young Readers, 2013).
Elsie Chapman’s debut novel Dualed leads us back into the young adult fiction world in the subgenre known as the paranormal urban fantasy romance. Our narrator is West Grayer, a teenage girl, who lives in a speculative fictional world, Kersh, in which each individual is born with a double living in another city. Yes, there are TWO of each individual living in the same fictional world. Once these individuals reach a certain age, the Alts must battle to the death. The one that survives is called a Complete. Of course, everything isn’t so simple with the process. There are Strikers, assassins hired to help kill off one’s Alt. Those with more money and living in better areas inevitably have higher rates of completion. West Grayer, as we might expect, is an underdog. Her parents are dead; her siblings have in one way or another either been killed by their alts or have been accidentally killed. Her closest friend, Chord, completes, but West loses her brother Luc when he gets inadvertently drawn into the combat. Chapman’s premise is first-rate for the simple fact that it is so philosophical. How does one go about killing the person that looks exactly like oneself? Will that other person hold the same values, the same motivations? The amazon page takes the issue a little bit further by asking the question about the world itself in which children and teens are pitted against each other along with the tagline that assumes that the one that survives is “more worthy.” This moniker is interesting insofar as it suggests that the individual who is more efficient and skilled at killing the other is better. What kind of society would this be? This question is never actually fully explored in the novel. We get a sense of a shadowy governing system known as the Board, but we do not know why they devised this system or if indeed they are the ones in actual power. Fortunately, Chapman has at least one more novel in this series coming out, tentatively entitled Divided. Given the rather definitive ending of this novel, it will be interesting to see what road Chapman takes. In terms of the broader subgenre that we’ve reviewed here, Dualed would pair incredibly well with Zhang’s What’s Left of Me. The cultural critic in me can’t help but think a little bit imaginatively about these two writers and their fictional worlds, both which involve characters who ultimately have to deal with a kind of split in the self. Are we not in some kind of metaphorical consideration of Asian American identity? Haha! Yea, a bit of a stretch, but Chapman leaves enough room in her physical descriptions of West to wonder if there is a racial background to be discerned. Indeed, in these speculative fictional worlds, it is the question of social difference which remains a question mark and the intellectual work we must do to yoke such worlds to our own.
Buy the Book Here:
http://www.amazon.com/Dualed-Elsie-Chapman/dp/0307931544/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1364621649&sr=1-1&keywords=elsie+chapman
A Review of Justina Chen Headley’s Return to Me (Little Brown Books for Young Readers, 2013).
Though I have a great love for the young adult/ paranormal/ urban/ romance/ fantasy genre, as demonstrated by my incessant reading of authors like Melissa de la Cruz, Yvonne Woon, Malinda Lo, and others, there is something absolutely refreshing about reading a YA fiction that is not so steeped in the supernatural. To be sure, Headley, perhaps in a nod to the shift in the speculative, does give her some of these characters a kind of sixth-sense, an ability at times to see visions that will mark the future (an intuitional skill arguably). Yet, Headley’s focus has always been—in this fourth novel as in her three previous ones—to contour the quite complicated nature of adolescent maturity. In Return to Me, our protagonist and first person narrator is Rebecca Muir, an aspiring teenage architect living in Seattle, who has just been accepted to Columbia University. When her father receives a promotion in the New York City area, all seems perfectly aligned for her entire family to stay together, which also includes a devoted mother and a rambunctious younger brother (named Reid). Not all is so perfect of course. Rebecca (also nicknamed Reb, or Rebel) is in a serious relationship (with Jackson) and must consider whether or not to continue it. With counsel from her father, she decides to give it a shot, but the novel immediately shifts gears once they have arrived in New York. Reb’s Dad is away on a business trip and does not answer his phone; they soon discover that he is having an affair and that he is separating from their mother. Headley thus uses this novel to explore how one family recovers and heals from this kind of rift and the process is not entirely graceful. For instance, Reb’s mother must find a new identity to carve out in light of the fact that she may be forced to find another source of income in order to finance Reb’s schooling. Reb herself reconsiders the importance of Jackson in her life and whether or not she really wants to attend Columbia. Finally, Reb’s grandfather suggests they all retreat to Hawaii, with an opportunity to restore and rejuvenate. When the family does relocate for a period, Headley’s characters begin to see their rebirths. I always appreciate Headley’s novels because she manages that rare balance: to provide her characters with closure, while not succumbing to an excessively sentimental ending. Another engaging YA fiction.
Buy the Book Here:
http://www.amazon.com/Return-Me-Justina-Chen/dp/0316102555/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1364401738&sr=8-1&keywords=justina+chen
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