American Born Chinese Gene Luen Yang Angelo Casiano, Julius Francia, Paul Kim, & Vicky Chen About the Novel 3 separate stories which come together: 1. A coming-of-age story about a Chinese-American boy named Jin who moves to a suburban town in the States and his daily struggles in school with discrimination 2. The Chinese legend on Sun Wukong (Monkey King) who wants to be respected as a God but is looked down upon for being a monkey 3. A story which outlines the relationship between Danny and his cousin Chin Kee, who is a stereotypical caricature of a Chinese person 2 About the Novel Cont. ▧ Age range: Junior years (Grade 8-9) ▧ Awareness of identity coming into fruition (further detail later) ▧ Good time for students to engage in discussions around identity ▧ Good introduction to graphic novels ○ Helps develop visual literacy 3 Awards 2007 2007 Publishers San Francisco Booklist Michael L. Eisner Weekly Chronicle Top Ten Printz Award Comic of Book of for Youth Award the Year the Year Time NPR Amazon.com 2007 2007 Top Ten Holiday Best of the Best Book: Harvey Comic of Pick Year Chinese Award the Year American Librarians Asso. 4 Prominent Themes ▧ Shame ▧ Weaving story and cultural myth ▧ Identity, acceptance, and community ▧ Transformation (Versions of reality) ▧ Discrimination and stereotyping 5 “ 6 Merits and Challenges Merits Challenges ▧ Fosters cultural ▧ Many issues to unpack awareness ▧ May require careful ▧ Helps students think frontloading of cultural critically about context and the genre perception and forming to fully appreciate identity ▧ Stereotypes in novel ▧ Humour and visuals are may be sensitive to engaging (genre) students ▧ Relatable for students ▧ Non-linear plot may be entering high school confusing ▧ May be less impactful to some demographics 7 Additional Resources “Growing Up Asian-American” tag on Youtube 8 Shape of You Thinking about identity... 9 10 Template by wordart.com/create Thanks! Any questions? 11 Template by slidescarnival.