Thief of Hearts

Golden Mountain Chronicles #9

by Laurence Yep

Caught in the Middle Stacy Palmer almost never thinks about being Chinese American, As far as she's concerned, she's just like everyone else. Then Hong Ch'un comes to Stacy's school from China. Stacy and Hong Ch'un don't exactly get along, but when Hong Ch'un is accused of stealing and runs away, Stacy bows she must try to find her. With her family's help, Stacy searches the tiny back streets of San Francisco's Chinatown. There, she gets a glimpse of what it was like for her Chinese mother, growing up in a different culture. And for the first time in her life she realizes her true heritage-and finally understands what it means to be Chinese American.

Genres: Childrens, Historical Fiction, Middle Grade, Young Adult, Juvenile, Asian American, Fiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

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 troubling times during the Depression, he was able to open a grocery store in an African-American neighborhood. Growing up in San Francisco, Yep felt alienated. He was in his own words his neighborhood's "all-purpose Asian" and did not feel he had a culture of his own. Joanne Ryder, a children's book author, and Yep met and became friends during college while she was his editor. They later married and now live in San Francisco.

Although not living in Chinatown, Yep commuted to a parochial bilingual school there. Other students at the school, according to Yep, labeled him a "dumbbell Chinese" because he spoke only English. During high school he faced the white American culture for the first time. However, it was while attending high school that he started writing for a science fiction magazine, being paid one cent a word for his efforts. After two years at Marquette University, Yep transferred to the University of California at Santa Cruz where he graduated in 1970 with a B.A. He continued on to earn a Ph.D. in English from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1975. Today as well as writing, he has taught writing and Asian American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley and Santa Barbara.

Reviews

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

The last of the Golden Mtn Chronicles touches on the plight of modern Chinese Americans that are half-Chinese and half-Caucasion. Stacy has always felt herself to just be an American until a Chinese girl comes to her school, causes conflict, and forces her to see that others really see her differently. As she tries to save the new girl and solve a mystery, she learns about her mother's heritage in San Francisco's Chinatown and learns what it means to be herself.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book was about how this chinese american girl named stacey that needs to accept how it's like to be half asian and half white. others in her society calls her mixed and it really hurts her feelings because she didn't expect people to see right through her and isolate her from the school just becuase shes mixed.

[bella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Writing this review over a year after I read it, but I still love it so much. I really feel for both characters and i just loved it so much. If I could download it so I could reread it whenever I want I definitely would.