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abby_can_read's review against another edition
3.0
📱
The poetry was well written. I think this book handles topics like racism in a related manner. It was sad and hopeful.Â
The poetry was well written. I think this book handles topics like racism in a related manner. It was sad and hopeful.Â
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Xenophobia, and Racial slurs
Moderate: Gaslighting, Bullying, and Hate crime
afi_whatafireads's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
fast-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
4.25
'If there's one thing
I want you to learn it's this:
hold on to what is good.
With all your strength,
grab hold of the good
in this world
and never let go.
Such a telling tale and somewhat a semi-memoir of a Taiwanese-Chinese family who moved to America in hopes in living the America dream.
Personal Ratings : 4.25🌟
The novel in prose was written in 4 parts, in which each part tells the journey of Anna and her family on their moving to America. The Beautiful Country or known as America is a place where immigrants especially asians come over to find more opportunities for work and a better life. In the case of Anna, we get an insight of her moving to Los Angeles at 10 years old, with her parents and her have no proficiency in English. There we see not only the Racism and constant snide remarks and gaslighting that children of immigrants usually has to face, the author also showed the harsh reality of what it means to be poor, in an unknown land, in search of finding a place to call Home .
Since Anna's family is a mix of Taiwanese and Chinese, we not only get an insight of the racism that happens in America, we also get the racism among their own race as well, where Taiwanese are not considered "as Chinese" as the people from the mainland. Even though this book is targeted for middle grade readers, its also an eye opening read from the eyes of an adult, where the perspectives of children are often honest and makes your heart go 🥺 as Anna was only a child but had to act as an adult. We also see her character growth from being a loner, into accepting her culture and introducing them to the people at her school. Targeted bullying is not something not common and we often see it with immigrant children, where they grew up to not know which place to feel belonged too. I liked that the author took this topics at hand, and as it almost a semi-memoir as its told on the author's real experiences as well, it makes the story more heart-wrenching.
Overall, whilst the technicalities in writing could be done better, I feel that this book is such a good read for its targeted audience, and even an eye opener, especially to APOC and immigrant children living in America. It portrays the harsh reality of the "land of dreams" while also showing at the end of the day, what is important that is we stay true to ourselves and the concept of 'home' is something that we create, made of the people we love and cherish.
Highly Recommended!
Thank you so much to Times Reads for generously providing me this gorgeous copy of the book.
Disclaimers: All my reviews are my thoughts of the book and according to my personal preferences. Even though I had received a review copy, it does not affect my review and honest thoughts for the book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Bullying, and Gaslighting
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