June 3, 2025 by Kids Can Press
E ARC Provided by Edelweiss Plus
In this graphic novel memoir, we see Yinfan, who is being raised by her Mama and Baba, as well as nearby family members. After an idyllic childhood, she heads to school, where her mother has let her skip preschool. This doesn’t work as well as expected, since Yinyin doesn’t know Pinyin as well as she would like, and struggles with this aspect of learning, although work at home and a tutor help. When her father gets a job in Guangzhou, she is left with her grandparents, Waigong and Waipo, for a while. They live with family for a bit, but eventually get their own small apartment. Yinyin struggles with language again, since her family speaks a slightly different dialect. Her new school has very precise rules, and she sometimes has trouble following them. Being an only child, she is lonely without her extended family, even though they weren’t always perfect. She briefly makes a new friend, Hong, but after a childhood mishap, is told to stay away from her. When her grandparents retire and move closer, there is a brief reprieve from her loneliness. After a robbery, the family moves to a better neighborhood, and Yinfan enters middle school and starts her military training. After some rocky times trying to be a “cool kid”, Yinfan makes peace with herself and her family life.
Strengths: This is an interesting slice of life of China in the early 2000s, and I was particularly mesmerized by all of the rules in the schools, and the idea of military training in middle school. I can’t imagine US students being okay with not only uniforms, but also very prescribed ideas about haircuts and colors. Children were not even allowed to be left handed! The two color illustrations (orange and vibrant green) set this apart from other graphic novels.
Weaknesses: I’m not sure my students will like the art style. It’s really hard for me to understand why they like some titles and not others. The closer the style is to Raina Telgemeier or manga, the more they seem to like it. One graphic novel that I really enjoyed, Doodles from the Boogie Down, often sits on the shelf until I personally hand it to students. It’s sad that my students aren’t more adventurous with their reading!
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who enjoyed graphic novels describing life in other countries, like McLeod’s Continental Drifter , Chan’s Uprooted: A Memoir About What Happens When Your Family Moves Back or even Khor's The Legend of Auntie Po, which has a somewhat similar art style.
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