Throwaway Daughter by Ting-xing Ye

This is the story of a young Chinese-Canadian girl named Grace (Dong-mei) Parker and the struggles she faces when coming to terms with the fact that her birth mother in China gave her up, simply because she was a girl. When Dong-mei was a baby, her mother has left her on the steps of an orphanage with nothing more than a slip of paper with both her and her mother's name on it, and because of this fact, Grace had always been reluctant to learn about her heritage or her roots. Dong-mei (Grace) was then misdiagnosed as being deaf, and because of her imperfection was able to be adopted by a family in Canada.

Grace was openly resistant to any attempts made by her adopted mother to connect her with her past or heritage. Eventually as she grew older however, she becomes less resistant and more curious about why her mother could have abandoned her on the steps of an orphanage, and after years of taking Mandarin lessons (at the insistence of her adopted mother), she chooses to go to China for a business course, and to find some answers about who her mother was, and how she could be so cruel. When she makes the trip to find her roots and the people who gave her up, she learns a different side to her story, and is introduced world drastically different world from the one she was raised in, which gives her some perspective on what happened to her, and on just how the woman who was her birth mother could have just thrown her away.

This story did a good job of explaining the culture of China at that time and how people could have given up their female children. It doesn't excuse the action by any means, but it provides the reader with context and understanding. The story is told from each of the character's perspectives as the novel progresses, so as events occur we are able to live the situation through the eyes of Grace's adopted parents as they deal with trying to connect her with her roots, as well as Grace's while she is resisting. We see the motivation and thought processes going on in her grandfather and father and family as they demonstrate life before Grace was even born, and then the expectations and ideas they had while her birth mother was pregnant. The author does a good job of not demonizing any one individual, but rather painting a picture of the time, which helps place the reader in the character's positions and helps to explain some of the choices they thought were necessary to make.

The novel is written for a teen audience, but does not insult anyone's intelligence. It's very readable. Upon beginning the first chapter I was a little bit put off by Grace's complaining, but was happy to discover that that was not the tone of the novel and was drawn in shortly after. This is a very quick read with a moving plot line, I recommend picking it up.

The Ch'i-lin Purse: A Collection of Ancient Chinese Stories Retold byLinda Fang

This is a wonderful collection of stories, both for young children and for older readers. The book has 10 elegantly written short stories. Some are clever, some are funny, some show the value of kindness, but all have universal truths and wise lessons to be learned. The stories are hundreds of years old, but the way they are told keeps them fresh for a contemporary reader, and their messages keep them relevant. There is a pronunciation guide in the back of the book, as well as a sources section telling us a little bit more about each legend. A must for all lovers of stories with a moral.

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon By: Grace Lin

This is the story of a poor young girl named Minli. She lived with her parents in a village near Fruitless Mountain, named so for the fact that it was barren due to the anger and pain of a dragon. Every day Minli and her parents worked hard in the rice fields to make just enough rice to feed themselves, and every night Minli would sit with her parents. Her mother would sigh in anger at their misfortune and her father told her folktales about dragons, evil magistrates, and the Old Man of the Moon (an immortal who read from the book of destiny).

One day a goldfish peddler passed through the town selling his wares, saying that a goldfish would increase the buyer's fortune. Hearing this, Minli  took one of the two copper coins to her name and bought a fish. Her mother is furious with her and tells her there that there is barely enough rice for the three of them and that they would never be able to feed another mouth. The night following this conversation, Minli decided that her mother is right and released the goldfish. As soon as she did so however, the goldfish thanked her! She was startled to find the goldfish talking to her, but was told that all goldfish talk, but only those who want to listen can hear. The goldfish then tells Minli how she can find her way to Never Ending Mountain, home of the Old Man of the Moon, so that she could try to change her fortune. This sets Minli off on a journey to try to change her family's fortune. She meets various characters, dragons, goldfish, places, people, all of which she heard of in folk tales and fairy tales.

When I first began reading this book I didn't understand why it had won the Newbery Award. The story seemed pretty typical, kid goes on an adventure, meets some people, learns a lesson, that old thing. But as I read on I found the story to be more than that. All of the folk tales, even the plot itself were taken right out of a Chinese folktale, and all were seamlessly interwoven. If a folk tale was told early on in the story, Minli would interact with the people in that folk tale later on in the plot. So often fantasy and make-believe and imagination is passed off as a foolish waste of time with no practical application in the real world. This story reminds us that folk tales do come from somewhere, that there are lessons we can learn from them that we can apply to our own lives, and most importantly, we can see how stories give Minli and her family hope and happiness.