American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

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Cover of American Born Chinese

Summary

Amazon.com

“Indie graphic novelist Gene Yang’s intelligent and emotionally challenging American Born Chinese is made up of three individual plotlines: the determined efforts of the Chinese folk hero Monkey King to shed his humble roots and be revered as a god; the struggles faced by Jin Wang, a lonely Asian American middle school student who would do anything to fit in with his white classmates; and the sitcom plight of Danny, an All-American teen so shamed by his Chinese cousin Chin-Kee (a purposefully painful ethnic stereotype) that he is forced to change schools. Each story works well on its own, but Yang engineers a clever convergence of these parallel tales into a powerful climax that destroys the hateful stereotype of Chin-Kee, while leaving both Jin Wang and the Monkey King satisfied and happy to be who they are….”

Review

I have not read a graphic novel for quite a long time. Well, I do not believe I have ever read an authentic graphic novel, I have read a Warrior Series graphic novel but I am not sure if that qualifies.

This book was quite interesting. I am usually not a person who reads graphic novels because I feel that it does not give me the satisfaction of a regular book. I like to have to use my imagination  to see the characters and I like to see them in my own eyes. When you read a graphic novel, the characters are drawn for you. There is no imagination involved as you read the captions to go along with the story. Graphic novel’s, I believe, are for reluctant readers. They get you to read as they are good stories but they do not require a lot of concentration. I read this book in under a day as it was so simple. Do not get me wrong, it was a good book and the pictures were well done, but I personally do not like .

The pictures in this book were well done. I do like graphic novel drawings. They are a unique style of drawing and I respect people who can do it as it is quite an amazing art form. It was also a humorous book. Not like splitting your sides funny but it had its moments.

I personally believe that this is really a boy book though. There was no violence as such (even though at one point someone got speared and put over a spit but is saved) but the story line just came across to me as being a boy type of story line. I cannot explain how but that is the vibe that I got.

This book was a National Book Award Finalist. It also won a Michael L. Printz Award for young adult literature.

I would recommend you to read the book as it is a graphic novel and it is a good change from reading a regular book. I hope that you enjoy.

If you have read it tell me what you think about it.