This weeks book review is a little late due to good weather, I’ve been outside gardening!
Chinatown Girl is part of the Scholastic ‘My Story’ series. I thought about reviewing the series as a whole but decided not to. Partly because the books are written by different authors and partly because this book deserves its own review.
The idea behind the ‘My Story’ books is to bring history to life for children by using a diary format. The diaries are written by children, aged around 12, and usually cover a year. In ‘Chinatown Girl’ the diary writer is Silvey Chan and the year is 1942.
The thing I liked best about this book is that it covers NZ history from a perspective not often considered, that of Chinese NZers. Silvey lives with her family above her parents shop in Grey’s Avenue, in Auckland’s ‘Chinatown’. The book is rich with descriptions of the life the Chinese families lead and the difficulties they face. It is also set during the middle of World War Two and this adds another dimension. Food shortages, the Japanese invasion of China, and Chinese-American GI’s are some of the themes.
Scholastic have teachers notes posted here. You could use these if you were home schooling.
The copy I read came from our school library. Our public library has 4 copies, all of which are in the young adults section! Possibly the reading level is around age 11, but there is nothing in the content that would prevent it being an excellent book for a competent girl reader aged 8+.
There is no image with the post because I couldn’t find one on the internet. I took more time searching than I did writing.
One Comment
Home Schooling is also nice since you get to always see your kids.