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41st out of 79 books
—
101 voters
Angelfish
by
Laurence Yep
Robin, a young ballet dancer who is half Chinese and half white, works in a fish store for Mr. Tsow, a brusque Chinese who accuses her of being a half-person and who harbors a bitter secret. Robin and her grandmother decide to help and end Mr. Tsow's nightmare.
Hardcover, 216 pages
Published
June 25th 2001
by Putnam Juvenile
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Yep, L. (2001). Angelfish. New York, New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons.
Robin is a tween/teen (I don’t think Yep states how old she is), who is a half-Chinese, half-White ballerina. After leaving practice one day, she swings her bag around to hit her partner Thomas, misses, and breaks the window of the Dragon King fish store. The owner, Mr. Tsow, tells her that she can work off the amount it would take to replace the window. He’s not just grumpy, but insulting and condescending to Robin, calling her n...more
Robin is a tween/teen (I don’t think Yep states how old she is), who is a half-Chinese, half-White ballerina. After leaving practice one day, she swings her bag around to hit her partner Thomas, misses, and breaks the window of the Dragon King fish store. The owner, Mr. Tsow, tells her that she can work off the amount it would take to replace the window. He’s not just grumpy, but insulting and condescending to Robin, calling her n...more
Just after being cast as "Beauty" in her ballet school's recital, Robin accidentally breaks a store window. To pay for the damage, Robin agrees to work for the owner, Mr. Cao, a few hours each week. Mr. Cao is cranky and rude, even calling Robin "half a person" because only one of her parents is Chinese. As the summer wears on--at least, I think it was summer; I don't think Yep ever said--Robin begins to suspect that Mr. Cao's bitterness may be connected to experiences, both wonderful and horrib...more
The young teen-aged* Robin would seem a prime target for having an unsavory boyfriend who needs saving, mama! but for the character of Mr. Tsow. His cryptic statements, his unrepentant bigotry and certainty is intriguing; and he isn’t easily dismissed as not worth her trouble. That Robin’s maternal grandmother has come to America and provokes a desire in Robin to learn about her Chinese heritage is another. Part of understanding where Mr. Tsow is coming from is to understand his past. The grandm...more
RIght after being cast in the school play Beauty and the beast, a young girl breaks a pet shop window. The owner an old chinese man, makes her work off her debt through the store. The old crochety Chinese man calls her half a person because she is only half chinese. She soon discovers the reason for his bitterness towards life- his immigration from China to America.
This book was good because it incorporates the international aspects young adult lit rarely has. I learned a lot about the Asian cul...more
This book was good because it incorporates the international aspects young adult lit rarely has. I learned a lot about the Asian cul...more
Robin is the main characters name in this book. I enjoyed reading this book because Robin is a ballet dancer and dance is something I like to do. The main idea of this story is that a young girl named Robin, accidently threw her book bag at a store window. This store just happend to belong to a retired ballet dancer, Mr. Cho. Nobody knows he was a famous ballet dancer though. Mr. Cho made Robin work at his store for three months to pay off the window.Robin and Mr. Cho didn't get along so good at...more
In Angelfish by Laurence Yep, Robin is half Chinese and feels out of place. She loves to dance ballet but she's going to spend her summer working a tropical fish store after she accidentally breaks the shops's front window. The biggest problem though, is the shop's owner is grumpy, old and fiercely traditional. He doesn't see a place in the world for a girl like Robin.
As with so many of Yep's novel, the central theme is the coming together of different generations. As they learn from each other...more
As with so many of Yep's novel, the central theme is the coming together of different generations. As they learn from each other...more
Even though I read this book in elementary school, I still remember how wonderful and fulfilling it was to read it. This story is the right amount of happiness for a young person to read, and the right amount of surprise and reality to make it a real story. It was one of the books I remember from my childhood, and I won't forget it anytime soon.
This is an engaging illustration of Chinese American culture. The character's are described around the analogy of Beauty and the Beast and the historical context of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. I loved the character's interactions and the lessons learned about family, dreams and hope. Angelfish is a children's book, but well worth the read to anyone.
Some random book I checked out at my school's library...mostly because ballerinas are involved...it was acually pretty decent, though!
I love this book. i recommend it to people who like fast paced books. it shows never to judge a book by its cover. the main chratcer has to look deep through the fish shop's owners body to pull out his tue heart and soul which ebcomes helpful to her and her friends.
May 22, 2013
Mary
marked it as to-read
May 06, 2013
Amy Cox
added it
Apr 04, 2013
Cristy
marked it as to-read
Mar 12, 2013
Lissaleo
marked it as to-read
Mar 11, 2013
Alenette
marked it as to-read
Feb 04, 2013
Ana Rembao
marked it as to-read
Jan 21, 2013
North Branch
marked it as north-branch-jf
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Born June 14, 1948 in San Francisco, California, Yep was the son of Thomas Gim Yep and Franche Lee Yep. Franche Lee, her family's youngest child, was born in Ohio and raised in West Virginia where her family owned a Chinese laundry. Yep's father, Thomas, was born in China and came to America at the age of ten where he lived, not in Chinatown, but with an Irish friend in a white neighborhood. After...more
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