Culture 5 – Asian American Lit
1. TREE OF CRANES by Allen Say
Bibliography
Say, Allen. (1991). Tree of cranes. HMH Books.
Plot Summary
In Tree of Cranes, a little boy catches a chill while secretly playing at his neighbor’s pond. When he arrives home, his mother is not happy with him, and he must endure the consequences. It’s seven days before New Year’s. His mother explains that where she’s from in California, it is a very special day. She digs up a small tree from the backyard and brings it inside. They decorate it with the paper cranes and make it their version of a Christmas tree, with lights and presents.
Critical Analysis
Allen Say perfectly captures the voice of a young boy who knows he’s done something wrong. He shows the boy's frustration with short exclamatory sentences and descriptive internal dialogue. When he is feeling apologetic and longing for his mother’s forgiveness, he goes on and on. The dialogue and interactions between mother and son are authentic. It feels as if the author were writing a scene from his own life.
There are many cultural references. Mama is making origami cranes so that she can make a wish. The illustrations depict the characters with shiny black hair, traditional Japanese clothing, rosy cheeks, and fair skin. The house is a traditional Japanese home, with wooden floors and walls. Even the bath is made of wood. The boy calls his parents Mama and Papa. He eats rice gruel and his mother’s remedy for catching a chill is to get in a hot bath for ten whole minutes, change into warm clothes, and get in a warm bed.
Review excerpts
- Booklist: “Infused with gentle nostalgia, the quiet, graciously told picture book is a perfect blend of text and art.”
- Publisher’s Weekly: “The story is a poignant one, illuminated with finely drawn illustrations reflecting the serenity of a Japanese home and the quiet love between mother and son.”
Connections
2. THE ONE THING YOU’D SAVE by Linda Sue Park
Bibliography
Park, Linda Sue. (2021). The one thing you’d save. Listening Library.
Plot Summary
For homework, a middle school class must contemplate the one thing they would save if they were caught in a fire at home. Linda Sue Park uses the Korean poetry structure of Sijo to tell this story. Each student, in a discussion led by their teacher Ms. Chang, explains and narrates the one thing they’d save in an emergency.
Critical Analysis
The audiobook recording of this novel is a wonderful dramatization with a full cast of narrators. The reading is thought-provoking, expressive, and authentic to middle school student voices and manners of speech. The reading by the narrators is conversational and engaging. There are opening credits at the beginning, and it concludes with an informative Author’s Note and closing credits.
There are few cultural references in this book. The teacher’s name is Ms. Chang. The other character names you hear are generic American names like Ron and Natalie. One of the characters saves 93 china animals from boxes of tea. There is no further description of the character, so you don’t truly know if this is a cultural reference or not. There is no mention of skin tone color and the pictures, while beautiful, are in grayscale. The only language used is English.
Review excerpts
Connections
- Research Sijo Poetry and find other examples
3. WHERE THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE MOON by Grace Lin
Bibliography
Lin, Grace. (2011). Where the mountain meets the moon. Little, Brown.
Plot Summary
Minli and her parents live on a rice farm in a small Chinese Village. They are very poor and have little to eat. Minli’s father is a storyteller. She decides one day to follow her father’s stories and sets out to find the Man on the Moon and change her family's fortune. Along the way she meets many new people, befriends a dragon, and learns that gratitude is the key to happiness.
Critical Analysis
This story includes many important character arcs. Minli begins the story feeling pitiful and sorry that her family has so little when she sees others with so much. She sets out to change this, and along the way meets many people who are very happy, despite living in sorry circumstances. She learns that gratitude is the secret to being happy. Minli’s growth is the lesson that all children will get from this story. Minli’s mother is resentful and bitter in the beginning. Always complaining about the stories that her husband is filling Minli’s head with. When Minli leaves, she is heartbroken and lost. She learns that she had a great fortune all along, her precious daughter. She also comes to the realization that it was not her husband’s stories that made Minli leave, it was the ingratitude that she filled her head with instead. Dragon is a steady friend throughout the story, and while he doesn’t learn a life lesson like Minli and her mom, he does learn the secret to being able to fly in the end.
This Newbery Honor-winning novel is full of cultural references. Lin used traditional Chinese stories to create the versions that Ba tells Minli. The characters all have traditional Chinese names, and Minli calls her parents Ma and Ba. Minli is described as having glossy black hair and her dad has black eyes. They live on a rice farm and farm for rice. They eat with chopsticks. The metaphors that Lin uses are specific to Chinese culture: a kite became the size of a name chop mark, tears were the size of lychee nuts, and the stars in the sky looked like salt on seaweed.
Review excerpts
Connections
- Reader’s Guide at the end of the book.
- Excerpt of her new book When the Sea Turned to Silver.
4. Lon Po Po by Ed Young
Bibliography
Young, Ed. (1993). Fox Song. Philomel Books.
Plot Summary
Lon Po Po is a Red Riding Hood story from China. On their grandmother’s birthday, three children are left home alone while their mother visits her. A wolf dressed up like their grandmother comes to the door. The youngest two daughters are fooled and let him in. Everyone is sleepy so they get in bed. The oldest daughter notices something fury and realizes that he is a wolf and not their grandma. The girls trick the wolf into a trap. They raised the wolf higher and higher in a basket. After dropping him three times, his heart breaks into pieces and he dies.
Critical Analysis
In this version of Red Riding Hood, the wolf is the one who comes to the door, not a little girl. Instead of one girl as Little Red Riding Hood, this story has three. While two of the girls play the gullible side of Red-riding Hood, the eldest daughter is the one that questions Po Po about her deep voice, hairy tail, and sharp claws. In a departure from the original tale, the three girls in this story plot to get rid of the wolf. Shang, the eldest, uses the wolf’s hunger to lure him into a trap that leads to his demise.
There are several cultural elements that mark this story as a Chinese Red Riding Hood. The characters in the story all have traditional Chinese names like Shang, Tao, Paotze, and Po Po. They lure the wolf with gingko nuts. The girls have dark hair, expressive eyes, and fair skin.
Review excerpts
Connections
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