The Dragon's Child: A Story of Angel Island

Jacket art & design by Christopher Stengel,
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The Dragon’s Child: A Story of Angel Island, by Laurence Yep, 2011

Yep, Laurence and Dr. Kathleen S. Yep. The Dragon’s Child: A Story of Angel Island. New York: HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2011. ISBN13: 978-0-06-027692-8

Ages 8 and up

When his father comes to China for one of his rare visits from the Golden Mountain (America), 10-year-old Gim Lew Yep has no idea his life is about to be turned upside down. A left-handed (seen as bad luck in China) stutterer, Gim Lew tries very hard to not disappoint the father he hardly knows. But when his father tells him he is going back to America and taking Gim Lew with him, the boy is terrified when he learns that getting into the country could totally depend on whether or not he passes the rigorous immigration test. This story becomes even more poignant when the reader understands from the Author’s Note that Gim Lew Yep is the author’s father, and the story is based on Gim Lew’s actual experiences of immigrating to America.

This touching story of a father and son’s journey, told from Gim Lew’s first-person viewpoint, connects the reader to the main character by relating the harsh realities of what life was like for Chinese immigrants to the San Francisco area in the early 20^th century. To gain background knowledge and perspective, Laurence Yep and his niece, Dr. Kathleen S. Yep, interviewed Laurence’s father (Kathleen’s great-uncle), and excerpts from those interviews are included at the beginning of each chapter. Photos of Gim Lew as a boy, teen, and older adult, are also included in the book, with photos of scenes from the Chinese-American immigration experience at Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, often called the Ellis Island of the west coast. At the end of the story, the authors also include an informative chapter of background information about Chinese-American immigration during that period in time, along with a comprehensive bibliography.

Reading/writing/history connections:

•        For social studies and history classes, research on immigration throughout America’s history could compliment the reading of this book, based on the fact that those of us who are not Native Americans come from immigrant backgrounds. Students could choose a particular ethnic group and/or period of time on which to focus.
•        For social studies, history, or English classes, students could perform the same type of living history, first-person interview research that the authors did to get background information for this book. If someone in their family is not a recent immigrant, they could interview someone else they know, or could talk to a family member who knows something about how their family came to live in America. These stories could then be compiled into a book and published for distribution to class members and their families.
•        Students could put themselves in Gim Lew’s place and write about what life must have been like for him after he arrived in America. If the student were to come to America today, what kind of adjustments would they have to make? What would be the hardest and easiest adjustments to make?

Awards:

• New York Public Library's "One Hundred Titles for Reading and Sharing" (2011)
• Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choice (2011)

Reviews:

“With family photos, a historical note, and a long bibliography, this stirring narrative will spark readers’ own search for roots.” –Booklist

“Yep raises many issues about both Chinese immigration and the immigrant experience in general: Who am I? Where do I belong? How can I balance the duality of my life? Why do people treat others this way? The photograph of Gim Lew in his Western clothes shows a very real sadness and anxiety that are common to anyone leaving family and country behind as they journey to a new life, and Yep captures this beautifully in this brief fictionalized account.” –School Library Journal

If you want to learn more about author Laurence Yep, here is a link to his publisher’s biography about him:

http://tinyurl.com/auskvqs

For teachers and students who want to learn more about Angel Island and its role in the American immigration experience, here is the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation website:

http://aiisf.org/?p=26#more-26