Yang the Eldest and His Odd Jobs

The Yang Family #4

by Lensey Namioka

The Yang family is known for its talented musicians. The best in the group is Eldest Brother, Ying Wu, who spends most of his time practicing his violin. Everyone thinks he will become a famous violinist someday. But Ying Wu has to stop practicing when his violin begins making strange sounds. He needs a new violin, and now for the first time he must find work to pay for it. The trouble is that as Ying Wu goes from job to job, his family wonders and worries if his love for music is being replaced with his eagerness for earning money.

Genres: Childrens, Fiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2000

About the author

Namioka was born in Beijing, the daughter of linguist Yuenren Chao and physician Buwei Yang Chao. The family moved often in China. In 1937, the Chaos were living in Nanjing, and fled westward in the face of the Japanese Invasion. They eventually made their way to Hawaii, then Cambridge, Massachusetts. Namioka attended grade school in Cambridge and excelled at mathematics.

Namioka attended University of California, Berkeley, where her father was a professor of Asian Studies. Here she met and married Isaac Namioka, a fellow graduate student in mathematics. The Namiokas moved to Ithaca, New York, where Isaac Namioka taught at Cornell University, and Lensey Namioka taught at Wells College.

In 1959, the Namiokas' first daughter Aki was born, followed by a second daughter Michi, who was born in 1961. The family moved to Seattle in 1963, when Isaac Namioka accepted a position at the University of Washington.

In the 1970s, on a visit to Japan, Namioka visited Namioka Castle. The experience inspired her to learn more about the samurai. This study culminated in The Samurai and the Long-nosed Devils, which was published in 1976. Namioka expanded this book into a whole series of books about samurai. Namioka also wrote a series of books about a Chinese American family named Yang, and several books about young women and girls facing difficult choices.

Lensey Namioka is the only person known to have the first name "Lensey." Her name has an especially unusual property for a Chinese person born in China: there are no Chinese characters to represent it. Lensey's father, Yuenren Chao, was cataloguing all of the phonemes used in Chinese. He noted that there were two syllables which were possible in the Chinese language, but which were used in no Chinese words. These syllables could be written in English as "len" and "sey." His third daughter was born soon after, and he named her "Lensey."

Reviews

[Salsabrarian]

When Eldest Brother’s violin develops a technical problem, he finds that the cost to repair it would be prohibitive. At the violin shop he falls in love with a particular violin that is very expensive. Third Sister decides to help Eldest Brother find ways to make money to buy the violin, from babysitting, to street musician, to busing and waiting tables. Eldest Brother soon becomes consumed with making money and spends less and less time on the violin. Third Sister and the Yang family try to find a way to bring back his passion for music.

[April Helms · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cute story. The oldest brother in a Chinese family is a gifted musician. But when he has trouble with his violin and sets his sites on a more expensive instrument, his exploits cause him to forget about his passion for music in his drive for wealth.

[Casper786]

good book

[Lilly [Hiatus due to School] · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was another interesting read by this author.