American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

Alternates three interrelated stories about the problems of young Chinese Americans trying to participate in the popular culture. Presented in comic book format.

Loved this. Especially how the three stories that seemed completely unrelated merged and intersected, and reading back over to see how perfectly set up that was.

Complex, multi-layered story told through the graphic-novel format. Because of the format, I was left with many questions (not everything can be explained), but because of the subjects, I think having questions is a good thing. The book tells the overlapping stories of the Monkey King, a Chinese-American boy who doesn't know where he belongs, and a white boy embarrassed by his Chinese cousin. Yang brings their stories together masterfully. It is a simple book with amazing depth. This is only the second graphic-style book I've read, and I was impressed by Yang's use of the format to really “show not tell” the experiences of all of the characters.

I'm a decade late to the party but this was such a great graphic novel. Both in terms of the 1st generation experience and how parables were interwoven. The artwork was punchy and fun. My kids go to a public school with a special Chinese emphasis (they take Chinese once a week and there's a special Chinese classroom). I wouldn't be surprised if the upper grades read this GN. Still a little too complex for my guys, but they would love the story of the Monkey King!

wow so metaphorical! interesting story and so powerful and true, the illustrations were nice, but reading Chinkee's dialogues was hard, I know it was intentional though. I like that all three POVs come together, really cool.