This is a popular book in our school and the author will be at the public library this weekend, so I thought I should check it out. I really enjoyed it, which didn't surprise me as I'm a fan of graphic novels, but I wasn't expecting the way the author formed it so it went up a few notches in my assessment.
The story is told in three different formats, or as I thought of them, episodes, that interweave as if I were flipping through channels with my remote. First, there is the story of Jin Wang, a Chinese-American living in the suburbs of San Francisco and coming to terms with his identity in a mostly white neighborhood. Next, the story of the Monkey King who is dishonored at a party of the gods and through meditative kung-fu training tries to transform himself into The Great Sage Equal of Heaven, who must take the long way to learn his lesson and his identity. And then there is the "sitcom" story of Chin-kee, a Chinese cousin who comes to stay with a white family, played out in overt stereotypes and leading to the continued embarrassment of Cousin Danny. It seems these tales have nothing, potentially, to do with one another, but they are all connected by the search for acceptance, identity and the power to transform and what comes with that power, good or bad.
I was surprised by how all the stories connected in the end and they all became powerful, layered metaphors for one another. Awesome read.
Interest level: YA Reading level: Grade 5 (this is marketed as YA, but the content wasn't anything that Grades 5-8 couldn't handle)
Genre: Graphic novel, Coming-of-age
Comparable titles: Smile, Page by Paige
Book Connections: Chinatown in San Francisco, a study on stereotypes, Transformers, Kung-fu, Chinese mythology/deities
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