Uprooted

Chan, Ruth. Uprooted: A Memoir About What Happens When Your Family Moves Back

September 10, 2024 by Roaring Brook Press

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

In 1993, Ruth's father gets a better job in Hong Kong, where her mother lived before moving to Toronto. Her older brother, a junior in high school, stays at a boarding school, but the rest of the family, including a dog and a cat, relocate. Ruth is devastated, because she loves her friends and her life in Toronto. She doesn't speak Cantonese very well, isn't familiar with her many relatives in Hong Kong, and finds it hard to make friends at her new German school. She eventually makes friends with Bonnie, as well as a boy in her huge apartment complex, but her father often travels to China for work, and she misses their bedtime chats. Her mother is often not home, and Ruth spends a lot of time by herself. Little by little, she travels around the city more and starts to feel at home, but a bad report from her teachers angers her mother, who wants her to buckle down. Around this time, Bonnie stops talking to her, and when Ruth comes home to find no one there and no note, she gets very angry at her parents when they return. Her father has been telling her the story of what he went through as a child, since he was born in 1944 after his family had to flee their home and lived for quite some time in a barn. She also learns that her mother was sad to leave Hong Kong and move to Toronto, so does really understand what Ruth is going through. By the time her brother comes to visit at Christmas time, Ruth has a better grasp on her new life. 

Strengths: This was a well done look at having to move from a familiar environment to somewhere completely new. Ruth's struggles with language, custom, and getting to know family were poignant. Today's children will be amazed at how often she was left alone in a new, large city. There is a little friends drama, and I loved the fact that while fitting in and having friends was (of course) important for Ruth, her mother was more concerned with the quality of her school work. The artwork is engaging, and the realistic pastel color scheme gave a slightly retro feel to this, although all Millenials know that the 1990s was just ten years ago. 
Weaknesses: The author has a note that she started writing a graphic novel about her father's childhood experience but then realized she really wanted to pivot more towards her own story; I want a novel about the father's experiences! I can't say I've read much about the second Sino-Japanese War, and I'd love to know more. 
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who enjoyed Brown's While I Was Away or  Matula's The Not-So-Uniform Life of Holly Mei, or want more graphic novel memoirs set during this era, like Ogle's Four Eyes,  Doodles From the Boogie Down, Big Apple Diaries, or Santat's A First Time for Everything.