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izzieee's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
maddie_c's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I read this with my middle school students as a literature tutor. Highly recommend as a historical and literary fiction! We had plenty of great discussions about themes like “follower vs leader”, “us vs them”, “loss”, and “rising to the occasion”.
jshettel's review against another edition
4.0
I'm going with four stars mostly because I didn't read the other books in the series. (Didn't even realize it WAS a series until I had to read this one for a class.) A strong choice for multicultural literature - themes of social justice, race, power, but also friendship and a bit of "hero's journey" to round it all out. Learned a bit about the building of the railroad as well.
lizziekam's review against another edition
3.0
I read this because it was a choice on my son's required-reading list. I can't say I enjoyed it much or could really recommend it but it was informative. The main character is Otter, who lives in the mid-1800s in China. His father and uncle have emigrated to America to work on the railroads, and are the richest men in the village, treated like kings when they come home occasionally to visit. However, when events conspire to send Otter to America, he find that conditions for Chinese working on the railroads are awful. The book then spends many, many claustrophobic pages locked inside a mountain in the Sierras as the Chinese chip out a tunnel.
This book must have been assigned reading because it is an award-winning YA historical fiction. However, it is smack in the middle of a series, so I think this reader missed quite a bit of the development of the characters and setting. While the plot of the novel is stand-alone, I think this might have been a more rewarding reading experience if readers were more immersed in the story of generations of Chinese that Yep is building in this series.
This book must have been assigned reading because it is an award-winning YA historical fiction. However, it is smack in the middle of a series, so I think this reader missed quite a bit of the development of the characters and setting. While the plot of the novel is stand-alone, I think this might have been a more rewarding reading experience if readers were more immersed in the story of generations of Chinese that Yep is building in this series.
elizabethreads98's review against another edition
3.0
*read for class
Such an important story, but it's meant for a much younger reading level and I found it quite hard to get into.
Such an important story, but it's meant for a much younger reading level and I found it quite hard to get into.
tora76's review against another edition
3.0
This is the story of Otter, a Chinese boy who joins his father and uncle in America to work on the railroad. It's part of the Golden Mountain Chronicles. The books stand alone, though, or at least this one does. I just picked out a couple from the series that sounded the most interesting (this one and one about the 1903 SF earthquake) to try it. The writing's pretty good, though, so I may eventually try to get the rest.[return][return]Sadly, I didn't actually know much about this particular bit of history. I knew that Chinese laborers worked on the railroads and was under no illusions about what the conditions must have been like, but I didn't actually know any of the details. So it's an interesting read for that alone, but the story itself is pretty good, too.[return][return]I am not a fan of translating names, but in this case since it's nicknames I'm willing to give the author a little slack.
imperfectcj's review
adventurous
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
After a slow start, I got into this book pretty well. Yep's characters are interesting and reasonably complex, considering the target audience for the novel. I've always had trouble imagining what it might have been like during the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, and this novel (combined with the few months I spent in the Sierras in my 20s) gave me a start at picturing it. My 11yo isn't enjoying it much, though.
annascottcross's review against another edition
4.0
I loved the setting of this book. I had never read about the Chinese workers who helped build the railroads in the 1800s, so it was an entirely new world for me. Otter was a fun main character, and I really liked Squeaky and Foxfire and their crew.
SPOILER:
My one complaint is that I wanted Foxfire to come back alive at the end of the book, and I would have liked to see a little more of Otter's future, but those are just personal preferences.
SPOILER:
My one complaint is that I wanted Foxfire to come back alive at the end of the book, and I would have liked to see a little more of Otter's future, but those are just personal preferences.
scaifea's review against another edition
3.0
Otter travels from China to the States to join his father and uncle in the land of the Golden Mountain. But all he finds there is bitter cold and unfair working conditions as the white men overwork and exploit the Asian workers who are building a train tunnel through the mountain. Still, he manages to learn some valuable life lessons, including how to stand up for what's right in the face of terrifying authority, and by the time he begins his journey back home, he is ready to take that fight back to the Manchu.
This Newbery Honor book was fair but not earth-shattering. I admit to falling in and out of attention as I listened to it, although it did have its occasional gripping moments.
This Newbery Honor book was fair but not earth-shattering. I admit to falling in and out of attention as I listened to it, although it did have its occasional gripping moments.