I read American Born Chinese by Gene Leun Yang in one sitting and when I finished, I handed the book to my mother and she read it in one sitting. We could not stop discussing this book. Graphic novels is a fairly new idea to me and I am constantly searching for ways to try to incorporate them into my classes. I started with a graphic novel of Beowulf (which my students loved!) and would like to try to teach Maus one of these days. I think graphic novels are a great way to get students to read.
American Born Chinese was a great story. I was really impressed how the 3 story lines all tied together at the end. All along I kept wondering what the thread was that tied them and was happy to have such closure in the end. I was really impressed by the story of the monkey king and think that this is a great storyline for students to follow because it isn't as obvious as the others. I really like how the story talks about Danny became so "Americanized" he completely lost his own identity - he didn't even recognize himself in the mirror and it took a visit from his cousin Chin-kee for him to realize all of this.
The whole plot with Chin-kee was interesting because I think many young students might want to laugh at a foreigner who acted and spoke differently. (He reminded me of Long Duck Dong from Sixteen Candles.) I think it is important for students to read about tolerance and this book was really successful in doing that. I think that this book would be a great book to use at a middle school level.
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