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Copy/paste the text below into your blog. <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/118944.American_Born_Chinese?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="American Born Chinese" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1171765431m/118944.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/118944.American_Born_Chinese?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">American Born Chinese</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/68959.Gene_Luen_Yang">Gene Luen Yang</a><br/><br/> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/20220897?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a> rating: 3 of 5 stars<br/> <br/> <br/>English 425 Submitter’s name Leah Edeline <br/>Book Bank Book Bank subject <br/> <br/>Reference information: <br/>Title American Born Chinese <br/>Author Gene Luen Yang <br/>Publisher First Second Year 2006 <br/># of pages 233 Genre Cartoon <br/>Reading level 14-15 years old Interest level <br/>Potential hot lava: <br/>None <br/> <br/>General response/reaction: <br/>This book was so confusing to me at first. I went into it not expecting it to be a cartoon, I had no idea! After I figured out it was a cartoon I enjoyed it. It was well done in the fact that I am a 20 year old reading cartoons and I didn’t feel childish. <br/> <br/>Subjects, Themes, and Big Ideas: <br/>Acceptance, self-acceptance, friendship, multi-cultural tolerance, being humble <br/> <br/>Characters: <br/>Jin Wang: a teenager who recently moves to a predominantly all white school. He is the only student of Chinese descent and for that he is constantly teased <br/>Wei-Chen Sun: another Asian student at Jin’s school who moves in after him. Jin and Wei become fast friends. <br/>Danny: White student who is constantly embarrassed and ashamed of his Asian cousin. Hides his cousin from his friends at all costs <br/>Chin-Kee: Danny’s stereotype Asian cousin who says all the things that Americans might think an Asian “F.O.B’s” say <br/>Monkey King: hates being a monkey and does whatever he can to be a God. Never listens and thinks he knows best. <br/> <br/> <br/>Plot summary: <br/> This novel starts out as three different, independent stories. The first is of the Monkey King who rules Flower Fruit Mountain. The Monkey King studies all types of disciplines so that one day he could be a god and not a monkey. He hated being a monkey. The monkey is rejected from human interaction time and time again eventually causing him to create a rampage until finally his creator comes down to earth to punish him. The Monkey King is defiant and stuck up so the creator punishes him to spend 500 years under a mountain of rock. He eventually is released and sent to aid a human in his mission to serve God. The monkey in helping the man found the benefits of being humble, respectful and faithful to others. The next story is of a young Chinese-American boy who moves to a new neighborhood and he is 1 out of 2 Asians in the entire school. Upon moving to this school he starts to feel shameful of his heritage and is even teased by his peers on being different. He doesn’t have any real friends until another Asian student Wei-Chen Sun came. They soon became close friends. After a few weeks at the new school Wei started dating Susan the other Asian student and Jin had crush on a white girl Amelia. To look more like a white boy Jin perms his hair and thinks it will make Amelia like him more. Finally he gets a date with Amelia and decides he is in love with her. He finally asks her on a date and they have a great time. The next day at school Amelia’s cousin tells Jin not to talk to her anymore, she will look like a nerd. This upsets Jin causing him to lash out at his friends and it results in his friendship with Wei to end. The third and last story is about a white kid named Danny and his stereotype Chinese cousin Chin-Kee. Chin-Kee is very smart and knows all the answers to all the questions in ALL of Danny’s classes. This annoys Danny to the point of no return. All these stories combine when the next Jin goes to sleep himself and wakes up white. He decides to call himself Danny. Danny then beats up Chin-Kee and punches his head off, only to reveal that Chin-Kee now has the head of the Monkey King. He explains to Jin, who has now turned back to regular form, that Wei is his oldest son who is to follow in his footsteps. Wei was sent to earth to learn the ways of a human but while on earth his feelings were hurt by his best human friend and now he refuses to protect and serve humans. Now it is Jin’s turn to help Wei and convince him to change his mind. Jin apologizes to Wei and they become friends again. The end. <br/> <br/>Strengths (including reviews and awards): <br/>Michael L. Printz Award <br/>National Book Award Finalist <br/> <br/>Drawbacks or other cautions: <br/>None to discourage me using this book in a classroom <br/> <br/> <br/>Teaching ideas: <br/>Pre-reading: Study first hand sources of discrimination again Chinese-Americans in the United States <br/>Discuss discrimination/stereotypes that are present in the school <br/>Reading: Read independently <br/>Complete a diorama project of a scene from the novel; three altogether, one from each story. <br/> <br/> <br/> <br/> <br/> <br/> <br/> <br/> <br/> <br/> <br/> <br/> <br/> <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/870554?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>