Product Description

This story begins at the turn of the nineteenth century in South China where Yenyee and her family live. One night, her fisherman father vanishes in a ferocious storm at sea. But it is not only her father that she suddenly loses that day. Yenyee feels betrayed by the ocean, a friend she has trusted all her life, and betrayed by her family who then send her across the Pacific Ocean to the New World to be a servant.

In this poignant story, two worlds-China and North America-come together. Inspired by the Wing Sang collection at the Vancouver Museum, author Paul Yee takes the reader on a magical voyage of love and forgiveness, of bravery and community.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #965910 in Books
• Published on: 2001-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 32 pages

From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 3-This tender story about Chinese immigrants to Canada opens in their homeland, as Yenyee's fisherman father gives her a jade pendant carved like a fish. When a typhoon blows up while he's out at sea, she throws the necklace into the water to bargain for his life. Still, he drowns, leaving her family penniless. Reluctantly, the girl accepts a job as caregiver to May-jen, the village merchant's daughter, and accompanies them to the New World, where both girls are terribly homesick. When May-jen nearly drowns in the ocean and Yenyee rescues her, miraculously finding the lost jade pendant, it marks a turning point in the older girl's acceptance of their new home. Deliberately naive color illustrations, composed of strong, simple forms, subtly portray a range of emotions from sorrow and desperation to happiness. Dramatic, wordless spreads advance the narrative. The art conveys a clear sense of place but confuses readers' sense of time by showing the immigrants traveling by sailboat at the turn of the 19th-century to a country where little girls wear short skirts and socks. In a few sentences, Yee's phrasing becomes formal and stilted. Nevertheless, art and text combine into an engaging story with emotions that children will understand.
Margaret A. Chang, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, North Adams
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
Paul Yee is one of Canada's finest writers for children. He was raised in Vancouver and has worked in the archives at the Vancouver Museum. He is a past winner of the Governor General's Award for Children's Literature (1996) for Ghost Train. He now lives and writes in Toronto.

Grace Lin grew up in upstate New York. She attended the Rhode Island School of Design and now lives in Los Angeles. She is the author and illustrator of Dim Sum for Everyone!, which Booklist called "graphically striking...a treat."

Customer Reviews

Ages 3-8 will enjoy this beautiful folk story
Ages 3-8 will enjoy this beautiful folk story, embellished with Grace Lin's warm drawings and capturing the immigrant experience from the eyes of a young Chinese girl whose beloved fisherman father vanishes at sea. Good reading skills will lend appreciation to this story of a girl's growth.