Honeysuckle HouseAlienation, longing, prejudice, and cultural difference is touched on in this immigrant story told in the voices of two ten-year-old girls. Sarah and Tina are fourth graders. The most important thing in the world to Sarah -- American-born Chinese -- is the recent departure of her best friend, Victoria. She misses her terribly. Tina has just recently moved to Cincinnati from Shanghai, and is trying to make sense of a whole new world -- pretty much clueless to all the things Sarahis hip to. The two girls are paired together in school, as if Asian appearance were proof of parallel lives and experience. ("I don't speak Chinese," Sarah keeps having to explain.) It's the daily, common stuff of childhood intrigue that finally manages to connect their stories and forge a friendship. A whole constellation of adult concerns swirl around them -- green card worries, assimilation, absent fathers, family tensions -- but Andrea Cheng remains true to the heart and voice and vision oftwo ten-year-old girls, in a story which blends tears and games, drama and play. |
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America asked Auntie Daisy Ba Ba Ba's baby blouse Boxcar Children brush buckeye bunny carve Chicago China Chinese Chinese characters Chinese food clean crying Dad's Dewayne door dumpster English eyes face fast fingers floor frog front girl glass green card hair hand head honeysuckle house Hong inside jacket kids kitchen kitten kitty kung fu lady legs letter look loud Ma's Mom's mother moved Mu Ying Naomi says nodded notebook numbers Okay picked picture play Po Po pokeberries ponytail pulled red envelope rubber bands Sam's Sarah Shanghai shouted smell smiled someday soup squirrel stay stick stomach stop sweater T-shirt talking things Tina Liang Tina says Tina's Ting told took tree trying turned Uncle vase Victoria Victoria's house voice wait walk watch What's whispered whistle window wontons write wrote Ying