American Born Chinese

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars

I did it! I finally read an entire graphic novel! And I'm still alive to tell about it. :)

My friend's 12-year-old daughter recommended it to me, so I figured it had to be pretty good. She knows the whole manga thing confuses me, so she picked a GN that was more like a comic strip with varying sizes of panels--easy enough for me to follow.

This book has three storylines that trade off, and I couldn't figure out whether there was supposed to be one unifying story until almost the very end, but it wasn't hard to track each thread, even when I couldn't see how they would connect. 1) A tale of the Chinese Monkey King, 2) a tale of a lone Chinese American boy making friends with a Chinese boy, and 2) a tale of an American teenager who is embarrassed by his uber-stereotypical Chinese cousin coming to visit. I enjoyed the humor of each, and I was surprised to see a slight religious theme subtly interwoven into the whole--a blend of Eastern and Western.

I also appreciated how fast it was to read. Only 1 1/2 lunch hours required!

Overall, I'd say it's a great GN for teenagers. There are some raging teenage hormones in the story, so I probably wouldn't recommend it to all elementary school kids. And I think I'd actually give it 3 1/2 stars. Were I a big GN fan in general, it would probably get 4 stars. :)


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