Title: Girl In TranslationAuthor: Jean Kwok
Genre: Fiction
Release Date: April 29, 2010
I received this book for review from Riverhead Books/Penguin.
Summary: When Kimberly Chang and her mother emigrate from Hong Kong to Brooklyn squalor, she quickly begins a secret double life: exceptional schoolgirl during the day, Chinatown sweatshop worker in the evenings.
Disguising the more difficult truths of her life—the staggering degree of her poverty, the weight of her family’s future resting on her shoulders, her secret love for a factory boy who shares none of her talent or ambition—Kimberly learns to constantly translate not just her language but herself, back and forth, between the worlds she straddles.
Thoughts: Speaking no English, Eleven year old Kimberly and her mom travel from Hong Kong to Brooklyn, in hopes for a better life. They soon realize New York is not all what they dreamed or hoped for. Surrounded by poverty and having to work in a sweatshop her hope seems so far away. To try and keep a little of that hope she turns to the one thing that she feels she has a talent for and that is school work. She feels this is a way to better herself and the situation.
I enjoyed Kimberly story. This is a book that will definitely take you through a range of different emotions. I was in awe of the journey. I have read many stories about immigrants, but none that took place in the present day. Girl in Translation was a beautiful, inspiring and an intimate look at immigrant life. A captivating story that can be enjoyed by readers of all ages.
Score: 3 Stars
Author Website: http://jeankwok.com/
It sounds like a nice book, and I do like the simple cover. Simple but really pretty
ReplyDeleteI have just finished reading this novel and I give it a 5 out of 5.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love this novel and I highly recommend it.
I think this is definitely one that I would enjoy.
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