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Jul 27, 2011

E rated it:

I've never read a book that described more accurately what it is like to be an Asian American immigrant.

It's like Ms. Kwok took pieces of my own experience (growing up in a cockroach-infested apartment with parents scraping by by working multiple menial jobs), and lines lifted from my friends' stories (calling an eraser a rubber, telling parents report cards came out only at the end of the year) and merged them with a thrilling and thoroughly absorbing story.

The novel tak More...

3 comments like (24 people liked it)

Apr 03, 2010

Tara rated it:

Remember the popular song in the 90s, It's a Hard Knock Life? That song kept popping into my head as I read this novel. For Kimberly, a Chinese immigrant residing in the slums of Brooklyn, it's a hard knock life indeed. Her mother and her come from Hong Kong when Kimberly is approximately eleven years of age and fully dependent on Aunt Paula, a jealous relative, they find themselves living intimately with roaches and rats in a garbage-bag-in-place-of-windows, illegal apartment with no heat o More...

4 comments like (11 people liked it)

Apr 01, 2011

Ami rated it:

It's as if Jean Kwok and Nicholas Sparks made sweet love and had a literary baby named "Girl in Translation." This book is yet another coming of age novel that fails to set itself apart within its genre.

Kimberly, a Chinese immigrant, moves to Brooklyn, New York, with her mother. Speaking minimal English, when she arrives, Kimberly begins to navigate her way through a new school, city and culture, enduring through hardships left and right. They live in a condemned apartment More...

2 comments like (10 people liked it)

Nov 16, 2011

Nancy rated it:

Girl in Translation is a walk in the shoes of Kimberly, a child immigrant caught in an exploitative labor trap upon arriving in America from Hong Kong. Because she is a uniquely gifted child, there is a chance of Kim escaping her crushing reality.

Her story compassionately explores why and how she and others make momentous choices, and leads us to the brink of a pivotal moment in Kim's life.

I liked the humanity of the characters. Most of Kim's confusion - at being immerse More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 05, 2011

Jennifer rated it:

I'm very hesitant to review this book, mostly because I'm not quite sure how to put to words what it is that reading this has made me feel.

It is at once both very familiar, and yet completely foreign. The Cantonese, the way that the author translates the slang and the phrases, the cultural traditions, the deeply embedded lifestyle that is Chinese pride and saving face...when I read about that, it was like something sparked in my blood. This part, I understand, and I have lived.
More...

0 comments like (10 people liked it)

Jul 07, 2011

Maria rated it:

Exactly the kind of book I enjoy: immigrant family, conflicts between cultures, love story. I enjoyed it very much.

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 12, 2012

Emma rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Feb 09, 2012

Book Concierge rated it:

A semi-autobiographical novel of a young girl’s journey from Hong Kong to New York with her mother, and their pursuit of the American dream.

Eleven-year-old Ah-Kim Chang and her mother arrive in Brooklyn in late autumn from Hong Kong. They’ve been sponsored by her mother’s older sister, Aunt Paula, and her husband, Uncle Bob. The original promise is a job for Kimberly’s mother as a nanny to Paula’s two boys, Nelson and Godfrey, and living in the family’s house on Staten Island. But a More...

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Jan 24, 2012

Helaine rated it:

I was completely taken by the characters and was appalled by their living conditions while admiring their ability to deal with those conditions and end up on top. Just the happy ending we want for our main characters facing adversity at every step. I did feel that Kimberly gave up her factory boyfriend rather abruptly from a story perspective. I thought there might be more doubts and soul searching re her educational ambitions vs his view of male family bread winner. More tension between Kim More...

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Jan 23, 2012

Diana rated it:

"Girl In Translation" by Jean Kwok was an amazing book! Although the plot may seem mundane and rather typical at first, its character, charisma, and events will keep you reading until 3am in the morning. It is about a young Chinese girl from Honk Kong, who moves to the U.S. with her mother, with the help of her "kind" Aunt. Her "kind" Aunt gives them an apartment that they slowly must repay, and a job at her own factory business. The apartment is in the worst side o More...

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Dec 30, 2011

Monica rated it:

A well done coming of age story by a very talented young writer. When Kim Chang and her mother come from Hong Kong to New York, they have no way of knowing the hardships in store for them. Kim is 10, in 6th grade, the best student in her school. Her mother is violinist and music teacher. The death of the father and the coming turnover of Hong Kong to China move them to leave everything they know and come to New York.

The trip is paid for by the mother's older sister, who has told th More...

3 comments like

Dec 18, 2011

Janice rated it:

Clear, straightforward prose and an interesting story, though it gets a little soap-operaish at the end. Gives me some insight into a world I haven't known much about (though I should), a Chinese sweatshop in Brooklyn. The narrator and main character, Kimberly Chang, arrives in New York with her mother, a widow, who sees no future for them in Hong Kong. Rather than receive real familial assistance, though, the two are taken to a roach and rat-infested apartment by Aunt Paula (Kimberly's mothe More...

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Nov 30, 2011

April rated it:

I knew it is bad for immigrants, but how bad it is, I didn't have any idea. Imagine living in a New York slum with no heat, except for the cooking stove, for the entire winter, and then doing it for years because you owe a debt to your relatives for bringing you to America. If you don't know the language, it makes it hard to protest anything that happens to you.

Factory work enslaves both mother and daughter as they are paid, illegally, by the piece, 1c per skirt. Kimberly's extraord More...

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Nov 25, 2011

Van rated it:

In all honesty, this book was too short for me. the beginning, I liked, but in the end, i was really dissappointed. It made me go, "What?" because i mean, she was this good girl at the beginning, but suddenly became a boy crazy girl in the end. This really confused me. When she started getting interested in boys, the author failed to explain very much about it. Such as her first kiss or such. The author just said, "I got excighted because I was doing something my mother told me no More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 22, 2011

Alison rated it:

Interesting and depressing look at how America treats its immigrant population. In this case, the main character (Kimberly) is a young immigrant recently arrived from Hong Kong with her mother. Their sponsors, Kimberly's aunt and uncle. One would think relatives would take care of family; not in this case. Although the aunt and uncle provide the mother with work (in a sweat factory, being paid piece work which is against the law) and a place to live (an apartment in a building that is condem More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 21, 2011

Faye rated it:

Well. This book had me fooled. At the beginning there is a prologue that is a glimpse into the future. I basically put it aside, because I generally find prologues to be author-indulgent barriers to the real story, but about 2/3 - 3/4 of the book it was impossible to put out of mind. An incident immediately following the death of a peripheral character brought the prologue to mind and I thought that because of it, I had the whole story figured out from there. And let me tell you, this post was g More...

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Nov 15, 2011

Susan rated it:

I was sucked into the story right away...there's a big teaser on the very first page which hints at some great regret that Kimberly has as she, a grown woman, reflects on her life. Then in the next chapter you jump back to how it all started as a young girl recently immigrated to America, the extreme poverty, surviving in an abandoned slummy apartment, while she and her mother slave away at a sweat shop (and it's set in the 80's...I didn't know these kinds of things existed in the 80's in the U. More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 12, 2011

lori rated it:

A beautifully written and sadly realistic story of a young mother and her brilliant daughter's journey from Hong Kong to New York in search of a better life only to be stuck (and firmly held) in dire poverty while working in the mother's sister's sweatshop. The author writes beautifully and I was easily experiencing the ups and downs, triumphs, losses, and heartache of the main character as she crosses between her Chinese background, poverty, and life at the factory and her career in academia a More...

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Nov 04, 2011

Mahasin rated it:

Kimberly Chang is only eleven when she and her mother pack up everything they own and move from Hong Kong to the United States of America. She is excited to be living in New York city, home of the Liberty Goddess (the statue of liberty) and so many skyscrapers but the reality she faces is far from what she expected. Initially, Kimberly and her mother were expecting to live with her mother’s older sister, Aunt Paula. Working for Paula helping take care of her son and teaching him music and Chines More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 02, 2011

Lauryn rated it:

Somehow, I managed to finish this book, though I complained about it the entire time (I know, my own fault, I should have shut up or stopped reading it.) I could not understand the rave reviews about it and couldn't fathom that people had read the same book that I was reading until I realized a consistent flaw in how we review both books and film: too often, people are praising the story itself rather than the telling of the story. Which is what I believe happened with this book. I suffered t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 29, 2011

Megan rated it:

In Hong Kong, Kim is the top student in her class and her mother is a music teacher. When they immigrate to America, they find themselves living in a roach- and rat-infested building and working long hours at a sweatshop just to survive. Kim knows that an education is their only way out, so she works hard, determined to succeed in school.

The author also immigrated from Hong Kong with her family and, although this story is fictional, the situations are based on real-life experiences of More...

1 comment like

Oct 28, 2011

Jendimmick rated it:

A shocking and heartbreaking story of immigration, poverty, hard work, and love. Ah Kim (Kimberly) and her mother immigrate from Hong Kong to Brooklyn, where despite having been "generously" sponsored by Aunt Paula and Uncle Bob, they sink to a level of poverty and squalor they would never have imagined possible when living so near to "Lady Liberty." Kimberly is forced to grow up quickly while struggling through school with very little English and working with her mother in More...

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Oct 07, 2011

Meegan rated it:

I'm embarrassed by how shocked I felt to realize just how hard conditions are for some new immigrants: the cruelty of sweatshops and a slum-landlord- owned apartment without heat, in a roach and rat infested, abandoned building. The author herself worked in a sweatshop as a child, so those descriptions are grounded in reality. Your heart breaks for young Kimberly, but as a result, you cheer her successes even harder. Her double life as a scholarship student in an exclusive private school by day More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 21, 2011

Catherine rated it:

Kimberly Chang and her widowed mother emigrate from China to New York City to work in a garment sweatshop owned by her mother’s sister Paula. They owe a seemingly never-ending debt to Paula for medical care, travel, and their roach-infested apartment. Kimberly takes the subway alone each day from school to the sweatshop, where she and many other Chinese children help their parents meet the work quota. Kimberly must meet her mother’s strict expectations at home, while slowly learning to fit in at More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Aug 28, 2011

Laurie rated it:

I bought this because I enjoy immigrant fiction: it often gives interesting insights into American or British life, and I'm an immigrant myself. And for about two-thirds of this book, I was not disappointed. But then … Ah Kim (Kimberly) turns into a teenager. She's been granted a full scholarship at an exclusive New York secondary school despite living in an appalling slum with her widowed mother who works all the hours God sends in a garment sweatshop in Chinatown run by her elder sister and br More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Aug 26, 2011

Marcy rated it:

Kimberly and her mom came to live in Brooklyn, N.Y. from Hong Kong after Kimberly's father had died of a stroke. Kim's aunt made it possible for them to come to the U.S., and during almost the entire book, Kimberly and her mom had to pay their debts to Aunt Paula as they worked in her factory for hours on end and lived in a rat and cockroach infested apartment with the old oven as its only heat in the bitter cold winters. So much for America, "the Golden Mountain."

Kimberly More...

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Aug 25, 2011

Tina rated it:

Though I never lived in the abject poverty that Kim, the main character, and her mother lived in, I found that, while reading, it reminded me a lot of my experiences growing up. I was reminded of the pull between being Chinese and being American all at the same time and never fully fitting in to either side, to always being just a little bit different, a little bit "foreign" even though I had been born here.

However, this book isn't just a story of an immigrant Chinese girl More...

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Aug 23, 2011

YA Reader rated it:

Girl in Translation was a fascinating tale of immigration and the darker side to New York City. Kimberly Chang moves with her mother to Brooklyn from Hong Kong in the hope of a more lavish and luxurious lifestyle in the West. What greets them in their small apartment is far from that. Speaking little English both must work hard to assert themselves in a new and bewildering society.

What struck me from the offset was how realistic the novel was. The descriptions are remarkably vivid an More...

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Aug 14, 2011

T.Y. rated it:

I did not have high hopes for this book when I checked it out from my local library. I grabbed it anyway, because I kept seeing it in my periphery, and decided that I could openly and harshly criticize it only after reading it.

I fell unexpectedly in love with this book by the end of the first chapter. It's not that I haven't read a thousand other stories about the Asian Immigrant Experience and it's many MANY stereotypes, tropes, and cliches. But this is the only one that resonated t More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 12, 2011

Lauri rated it:

Another book I read for book club, this was an excellent novel which I found difficult to put down. Since the author's bio seems similar to the main character's life, and since some of the other reviewers have commented on how accurate the description of the experience of this Cantonese immigrant is, I assume that much of this story is biographical. I was blown away by the conditions that Kimberly and her mother endured as recent immigrants to New York, especially since this novel takes place More...

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