Printz Book (2): American Born Chinese

Yang, G. (2006). American Born Chinese. New York, NY: First Second. Jin is the main character of this graphic novel. Jin is a young Chinese boy that feels like he does not fit in because he is in the minority at his school. When Wei-Chen enrolls at his school, he Jin doesn’t feel as alone as he did before. Although, the story line is hard to follow, it is apparent that by the time Jin reaches Junior High School, he wishes himself into his alter-ego named Danny. Danny is white and blonde. Danny’s “cousin”, Chin-Kee somehow represents Jin’s old friend, Wei-Chen in his new life as Danny. Although Chin-Kee is more flamboyant than Wei-Chen, his presence reminds Danny of his old friend and he helps him to realize that without each other, they are bound to lose themselves and their own identities. This story is very complicated to follow. But students age 14 and up would probably find the story interesting as the graphics help by adding humor to illustrate the comically complex storyline. I would suggest the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series for further reading as this series is also a graphic novel and very comical as well. This story meets the criteria for mental development as outlined in the text simply because of the complexity of the storyline. Readers will have to be mature enough to be able to decipher what the story is about and be intelligent enough to be able to draw a feasible conclusion.