Results tagged “ccc” from Shen's Blog

Until we finish our Crossing Cultural Borders series, this post will remain as the introduction. Newest post is directly below.

Please feel free to check out our Series Overview, where you can click on the the various weekly topics to find specific articles of interest. Or you can go here, scroll all the way down and read up to catch up! We welcome comments on all posts, old and new.

When I rediscovered my love for creative writing in college, I wrote the inevitably autobiographical stories thinly disguised as fiction that most writers need to get out of their system early in their journey to mastering the craft of fiction. None of the stories were any good. Then out of college I started writing stories about white Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) women old enough to be grandmothers who lived in small towns in Texas. So completely not what I looked like. So completely not what people expected I should be writing. Yet I thought there were interesting seeds. A writing teacher suggested that focus more on "what I knew." I argued that I knew Texas culture, having grown up there, so I liked to think of those early stories as authentic.

Regardless, I might be just talking about myself, but I do believe that because we had to integrate two or more different cultures in our lives, many ethnic Americans (especially first generation born in American) have developed a capacity to really put themselves into other people's shoes and see the world through perspectives quite different from their own. That skill is extremely useful for writing fiction, though it's not the only skill needed. The flip side is that ethnic Americans take for granted details about their private culture which may be viewed as different and exotic to the mainstream American.

While Lisa Yee certainly looks Chinese-American, she sounds 100% mainstream, though in a good way, especially when she is reading from her newest novel, So Totally Emily Ebers. Emily's story is third in a series of novels, and since Millicent and Stanford are both Chinese American, Emily is the first Caucasion point of view character.

Even though I understand the great need to create authentic multicultural novels featuring multicultural protagonists, I'm actually surprised I couldn't think of more ethnic American authors writing realistic stories with white American protagonists.

When I was a kid, Farewell to Manzanar was the only Asian American story that I had ever studied. Nothing else was easily available except The Good Earth by Pearl Buck. I thought that this author was Chinese or Chinese-American, and I was so excited to find another author who was Asian. Then as a teen, I discovered to my horror that Pearl Buck was white.

I thought how dare Pearl Buck write about the Chinese experience? I assumed she was a middle class White Anglo-Saxon Protestant woman who had never visited China, and even if she had, she would have seen it through her Amiercanized lens. I was incredibly upset because why couldn't a real Chinese person have written The Good Earth? Plus, in the movie version, the directors/producers decided on a white actress in yellow face rather than casting a real Asian-American actress. And guess who won the Best Actress Oscar?

What I didn't realize at the time was that Pearl Buck's childhood experiences were much like my own childhood experiences of being The Other. Surrounded by mostly Chinese people, Pearl's first language was Chinese, even though she was taught English by her mother. So even though she looked white, Pearl's sensibilties therefore were mostly Chinese mixed with the American influences of her parents.

I remember at a recent Asian-themed Reading the World, a multicultural children's literature conference, the amazing Katherine Paterson was a keynote speaker. Now, I am a big fan of Katherine Paterson's writing, but I wondered why she was invited to speak alongside ethnic-American authors like Ed Young and Linda Sue Park. I thought, couldn't they have invited someone more representative of the ethnic-American or even purely Asian voice?

The reality was, tall white American Katherine Paterson was born in China and spent a significnat amount of her childhood in China. She had lived in Japan for four years pursuing her graduate degree. So despite her white American appearance, Katherine Paterson was perhaps more in touch with some Asian sensibilities that than many Asian-Americans.

No matter who writes the novel, it needs to be authentic.

Here are some very recent examples of novels featuring ethnic protagonists written by white authors:

J.L. Powers' debut gritty YA novel The Confessional about male conflict between Mexican American and white American is already causing controversy, but not because of the fact that the author is female and white. During her childhood, Powers grew up in a barrio on the border of U.S. and Mexico as the only white kid in her class, and that lends an authenticity to her novel.

Jeff Stone sold a 5-book kung fu series called The Five Ancestors, all featuring Asian protagonist children, for a reported $500k advance, and his credentials for writing the novels is his black belt in martial arts.

Though Alan Gratz was born and bred in the American South, his first novel Samurai Shortstop is about two of his interests, baseball and Japan. He researched for months before writing the first chapters.

There are many more Caucasian novelists like Katherine Paterson and Gloria Whelan who write realistic fiction in other cultures. My favorite fantasy author who easily writes in different historical and cultural contexts is Donna Jo Napoli, and from a past conversation with her, I know she researches everything before, during and even after she writes her drafts. The bottom line is, do your homework.

Also, Rene (not to be confused with Shen's Renee) wrote a great thought-provoking post at La Bloga about writing multicultural picture books outside one's culture.

During our fifth week of Crossing Cultural Borders, we will explore the controversial topic of writers writing outside of their ethnicity and cultural background.

As a writer, I've heard over and over again to "write what you know" because the writing will feel more real. But I'd like to analyze the different ways of writing what you don't know.

And oh, there are so many issues!

Our Related Postings:

• White Authors Writing Ethnic
• Publishing and Obligations of Ethnicity
• Ethnic Americans Writing Outside Their Ethnicities

The hyphenated American novel gives voice to characters living the American minority experience. Those of us who look like The Other are usually vividly aware of our differences from the mainstream. We know there are different ways of living than most mainstream white Americans could even imagine, and this knowledge lends itself easily to thinking outside the box. Thus, many multicultural Americans have experimented with the traditional narrative format of the novel.

The novel in verse, though not exactly a new format (think Homer's Odessey or Illiad), has only recently within the past decade become extremely popular among young adult writers. Perhaps because of the conciseness of poetry. Or the ease of reading shorter lines. Or perhaps because the form of poetry lends itself more easily to emotions. Here are some hyphenated American examples:

Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson is about 11 year old African-American Lonnie who poignantly shares his memories of losing his family in poems, a result of a teacher's assignment.

Street Love by Walter Dean Myers is a free verse depiction of the romance between two African-American teens living in Harlem but separated by socio-economic lifestyles. 17 year old Damien has been accepted into Brown University when he falls in love with 16 year old Junice, taking care of her little sister after their mother was recently sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Also told in free verse, Seeing Emily by Joyce Lee Wong is about a Chinese American girl's struggle to come to terms with her own identity between her private Chinese restaurant home life and her public American life in Virginia.

Other hyphenated American authors have experimented with different narrative forms.

Even newer and more popular than the novel in verse is the graphic novel (think comic books with a long narrative arc), and one of the most recently distinguished young adult graphic novels is American Born Chinese by Gene Yuan. The narrative interweaves three different stories: the legend of the Monkey King, a contemporary Chinese-American story of a teenage boy trying to fit in a predominantly white school, and a parody of a whitewashed Chinese-American boy perpetually embarassed by his over-the-top horrible Fresh Off the Boat Chinese cousin. All these stories deal with the search for identity and coming to terms with their true selves.

About a teenage African-American boy on trial for murder, Monster by Walter Dean Myers is told mostly in a screenplay format mixed with sketches and vingettes of traditional narrative scattered throughout. Not only does this fit with the character of the protagonist who aspires to be a fiimaker, but the format of the screenplay distances the reader and allows the reader to witness the prosecution like a jury member to decide if Steven really is guilty or innocent.

About a 12 year-old Korean American girl's science experiment focusing on silk worms, Project Mullbery by Linda Sue Park is especially unique in its format, where the traditional narrative is interrupted throughout with interviews between the author and the main character. This format breaks the rules of traditional novel storytelling and much like in theater when the actors directly address the audience, these author/protagonists dialogues break the fourth wall of the narrative and exposes some of the author's creative process to the reader.

Next week we will be exploring how writers experimentally cross outside their own cultures.

In addition to the bi-racial Stranger in a Strange Land novels depicting American teens searching for the cultural roots, many bi-racial or multi-racial children are struggling for identity within America. Here are some fictional stories about children who are half or part ethnic and one hundred percent American.

In Cuba 15 by Nancy Osa, half Cuban, half Polish Violet has just turned fifteen, a milestone in any Cuban girl's life. Violet acquieces to her Cuban grandmother's plans for a quinceanero, a celebration of her 15th birthday. During those plans, Violet discovers her Cuban roots for the first time.

Nothing but the Truth and a Few White Lies by Justina Chen Headley shows half Asian, half white Patty Ho's shift from wanting to be 100% white to accepting her Asian heritage at Stanford math camp.

Rain Is Not My Indian Name by Cynthia Leitich Smith is about a part Native American 14 year old who deals with the loss of her best friend by exploring her Native American heritage.

The House You Pass on the Way by Jacqueline Woodson features Stagerlee, a 14 year old girl who is not only bi-racial (half black, half white) in a predominantly black neighborhood, but she is also questioning her sexual orientation.

Also by Woodson, Miracle's Boys are about three orphaned brothers, aged 13 to 23, who are half Puerto Rican, half black. When their mother dies, they must deal with their grief in their own unique way in addition to confronting racism. Eventually they come together as a family.

The struggle for identity for bi-racial kids especially must be very difficult, as not only do they look different from the mainstream, they usually look very different from one or both parents.

While many ethnic Americans live in certain parts of the country where they are often the only minority, the opposite is also true in America, typically in more urban areas. There are often enough numbers of a race or nationality reside that they form a kind of closed community. Examples could be a Chinatown in San Francisco or a Little Italy in New York City or an African-American neighborhood in the South or a Latino barrio in Texas. In such a setting, often the protagonist does not even know he is The Other, and can lead to either the discover of his Otherness or an issue-related story that does not focus solely on multiculturalism.

Scorpions by Walter Dean Myers is about the life of 12 year old African-American Jamal, who is trying to do the right thing but who gets into trouble when he joins and tries to lead Scorpions, an inner city gang.

The First Part Last by Angela Johnson tells the story of 16 year-old African-American single father who struggles to juggle school, friends and take care of his newborn baby girl all on his own. The narrative moves back and forth between the "now" of fatherhood and the "then" when Bobby and his girlfriend relate during her pregancy.

Tyrell by Coe Booth is about a 15 year old African American boy whose family lives in a homeless shelter in the Bronx after his father was sent to jail. Forced to drop out of school to take care of his little brother and support his mother, Tyrell is torn between keeping his girlfriend and figuring out the best way to get his family out of poverty.

The Tequilla Worm by Viola Canales follows 14 year old Mexican-American Sofia as she leaves her family and her small town Texas barrio neighborhood to attend an elite, mostly white boarding school, where she received a scholarhip. In the alien environment of the boarding school, Sofia discovers her true self.

Sharon Flake's first novel The Skin I'm In shows the self-discovery journey of 12 year old Maleeka, who is teased at school for her dark skin and homesewn clothes.

Apparently skin color is a huge indication of beauty among many African-Americans. The lighter one's skin tone, the better. The same can be said for Indians from Asia as well as many other Asian cultures. While perhaps some Asian cultures especially might few fairer skin as beautiful because long ago it meant one was a person of wealth and didn't have to labor hard in the sun, there might also be a racist component. That is, to be more fair brings one closer to becoming white, the majority race of America.

Also, often the clash in cultures is greatest when one's parents are the immigrants, and the protagonist is the first generation born in America. By the third assimilated generation, the knowledge of non-American languages and customs usually disappear, though food may be retained. But unlike children and grandchildren of European immigrants, all other descendants of ethnic immigrants must deal with looking like "The Other," whether the children be 100% ethnic, half ethnic and half white, or somewhere in between. With perhaps the exception of African-Americans, most overcoming a community history of slavery and segregation, an ethnic American could be a fifth generation American and still be approached by mainstream white Americans with the question, "Where are you from?"

As a country of immigrants, America's roots lie in its diversity, but what happens with the immigrants settle and have children of their own? And when their American-born children have children in America?

During the first three weeks discussing Crossing Cultural Borders, the border has always been a physical boundary which the protagonists cross. Yet with these American-born characters that look like The Other, the cultural boundary is no longer a tangible physical line like a country border. These novels deal with a meshing of two or more cultures within the characters' own life experiences. The protagonist's specialized private life of specific customs and values (education and filial piety for Chinese, language, and food often are completely different and alien compared to the mainstream American lifestyle ouside the home.

Especially true for immigrant families, often one or a few racial minorities living in a predominantly white society results in the Isolated Other.

Based on the author's childhood, The Year of the Dog by Grace Lin is about 10 year old Pacy's reclaiming of her Taiwanese heritage while living in upstate New York.

How Tia Lola Came to Stay by Julia Alvarez is about 10 year old Miguel adjusting to his parents' divorce and his new home in Vermont, so different from his old home of New York City. When his Spanish speaking aunt from the Dominican Republic visits and lives with them, Miguel reclaims his own Latino heritage.

In First Daughter: Extreme Makeover by Mitali Perkins, 16 year old Sameera is the adoptive South Asian daughter of a presidential candidate. To help her dad's campaign, she undergoes an extreme makeover to look more white. In the end Sameera rejects the makeover and embraces her South Asian culture.

In Girls for Breakfast, high school senior Korean-American Nick Park is "the only non-Anglo-Saxon student in suburban Connecticut," and he thinks his Otherness is the reason why girls won't date him.

While it was difficult to find purely fictional stories in the picture book format, there are more hypenated historical novels.

Mildred D. Taylor's classic Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is the first in a series of novels about the Logan family surviving the Depression. Set in the same time period, Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis carries with it an influence of the all-American musical artform of jazz.

Set in the 1950s, Kira Kira by Cynthia Kadohata is about a Japanese-American family moving from Iowa to the Deep South. In contrast, Kadohata's Weedflower deals with the Japanese-American internment during World War II, over 10 years before.

Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers takes place in 1960s and is about a teen who enlists in the American army and goes abroad to fight in the Vietnam war, while during the same era, The Watsons Go to Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis brings us a fictional African-American family that drives right into the deep south.

As I have covered previously, a few books of Laurence Yep's Golden Mountain Chronicles are set in historical times about 3rd or 4th generation Chinese-American children struggling to fit in.

I know there's more historical novels out there set in America starring American-born protagonists of color. What are your favorites?

While many countries have recorded histories that date back thousands of years, America in comparison is a relatively young country with only a little over 200 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. But for a child, 200 years is an immense amount of history, and often the history that the American children are taught are the stories of dead white men and some prominent white women with the occassional African-American. Since white men were the ones in power, and history is often written by those in power in the image of those in power, this is not a huge surprise.

But Americans of color born and raised in America did exist throughout America's 200 year history. The following books all have to do with specific moments in American history and re-focusing the historical story on the ethnic-American experience and the struggle to succed or sometimes even survive while living in a white dominated, racist society.

Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki and illustrated by Dom Lee and Flowers from Mariko by Rick Noguchi and Deneen Jenks and illustrated by Michelle Reiko Kumata are two very different stories about the the Japanese-American internment experience during World War II. Baseball Saved Us is about a boy adjusting to the new environment of the internment, and Flowers for Mariko is about a girl whose family returns to California after years of internment and find that they have lost everything.

Show Way by Jacqueline Woodson and illustrated by Hudson Talbot is a wonderful revisioning of American history through the perception of each mother's generation of the author's family, linked together with the Show Way quilts, which had their original purpose of guiding slaves to freedom for the Underground Railroad.

Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by Kadir Nelson focuses on the famous heroine's journey to lead African-American slaves to freedom.

Both illustrated by Bryan Collier, Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by Doreen Rappaport and Rosa by Nikki Giovanni profile two high-profile African-Americans who joined the thousands in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s in the Deep South.

Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez by Kathleen Krull and illustrated by Yuyi Morales highlights the life of the Latino leader who advocated for civil rights in the 1960s for migrant farm workers in California.

Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds: The Sammy Lee Story by Paula Yoo and illustrated by Dom Lee follows the struggles of the first Asian American to win a gold medal at the Olympics in 1948.

When Marian Sang: The True Recital of Marian Anderson by Pam Munoz Ryan and illustrated by Brian Selznick reveals how racism in America prevented the world-wide celebrated singer from singing at the Metropolitan Opera for most of her life.

As a side note, I never realized how many titles used colons until I looked at the biographies.

As we continue in our fourth week of Crossing Cultural Borders, we move from the stories of children immigrating to stories of immigrants' children, or their children's children, or their children's children's children, etc. Finally we reach what I consider to be the heart of American multicultural literature. Since the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s and the airing of the miniseries Roots in the 1970s, Americans have been on a journey to unearth their cultural heritages and reclaim them and rename them as uniquely American experiences. America is no longer only a melting pot, where all cultures merged into the mainstream-ness of white American culture. Like Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston said, America is now more like a mosaic, where pockets of various cultures are perfectly (often imperfectly) preserved and live side by side (sometimes integrating) to celebrate our differences.

This week we will be delving into the Hyphenated American Experience, or voices of Americans who look like (but often do not sound like) "The Other." From picture books to YA novels, these unique American stories are often the easiest to tell for the majority of multicultural authors born in America. We have lived our research every day of our lives. From wanting to have blue/green/hazel violet eyes instead of brown, coloring our hair to be more blonde/red/light brown and less black, "relaxing" our too curly black hair or perming our too straight black hair, those of us who are ethnic Americans often fight our own bodies to match the predominantly Caucasian features we see in magazines, books, movies and TV. This is especially relevant to many, many American kids today. As a child, I was constantly searching for stories where the protagonist looked like me and found very, very few. Now there are many, many more stories about Americans who look like "The Other," and many more to be published in the future.

I've already blogged a little about my personal experience writing a contemporary Asian-American protagonist, and I am extremely interested in exploring more ethnic American stories. Please feel free to comment about your reading and real life experiences.

There are so many wonderful novels written about the child/teen immigration experience from a historical perspective, but I can only focus on a few for this entry. Whether arriving to America by boat or by foot, these child protagonists are forced to work. The historical novel format allows for richer details within the text and more complex issues to be explored. While every novel features a crossing movement, some focus on the harrowing, dangerous journey to America while others show the struggle to assimilate while in America.

In my attempt to provide variety of cultural backgrounds, I noticed that each of these historical novels was inspired by the author's family background, usually the immigrant travels of their grandparents or great-grandparents.

The sequel to Nory Ryan's Song, Maggie's Door by Patricia Reilly Giff is told from two different points of view: Nory Ryan and her friend Sean. Traveling a few days apart, they are leave Ireland and the Potato Famine sail towards America, specifically her sister Maggie's house in Brooklyn. This narrative focuses mostly on the hardship of travel rather than the difficulty of American assimilation.

While the story of Nory Ryan was originally sparked by her Irish great-grandparents, Giff's A House of Tailors, is based on the life of another great-grandmother, this one from Germany. In 1870s, thirteen year old Dina belongs to a family whose business is sewing, and she hates it. When she immigrates to Brooklyn, she tries to leave sewing behind, but she cannot, as it becomes her job as she struggles to assimilate in America.

Inspired by her grandfather's story, The King of Mulberry Street by Donna Jo Napoli features nine year-old Beniamino, a Jewish boy whose mother smuggles him on a boat from Italy to America, where living in the streets of New York, Beniamino renames himself as Dom Napoli. He starts a sandwich selling business with dreams of returning back to his mother in Italy, but soon he realizes that America is his real home.

Based on her great-aunt Lucy's memories, Letters for Rifka by Karen Hesse is written in the epistolary format, specifically letters of twelve year-old Jewish Rifka to her cousin Tovah. Scribbled in the margins of a book of poetry by Pushkin, the letters cover Rifka's travels from the Ukraine to Poland and Belgium and finally Ellis Island. She escapes soldiers, disease, storms, and quarantine to make it to America.

Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan is based on her grandmother's immigration story from Mexico to America. When her wealthy father dies, Esperanza and her mother flee her mother's evil suitor and journey to California, where they labor in the fields. Interesting twist of the immigrant forced to leave behind a life of luxury in exchange for poverty and hard work in America.

Besides Laurence Yep's Golden Mountain Chronicles, there are not that many historical novels written for kids and teens addressing Asian-American immigration. Nor could I find any novels focused solely on the African immigration in a historical context, though there is a wealth of well-written novels about the African-American experience, historical and contemporary.

But perhaps it is because the trend for the historical fiction immigrant novel is to explore the immigrant experiences of one's grandparents or great-grandparents. While there are third and fourth generation Asian Americans, there are many, many more first generation Asian Americans dealing not with their immigrant grandparents but their immigrant parents. Also, the immigrants ancestors of most African-Americans were most likely African slaves brought against their will to America, and the children of slaves were usually separated from their families as soon as they were able to work, so often the family history is lost.

Much of the immigrant historical fiction I've featured have been published within the past ten years, so perhaps there's more soon to be published. Please share your favorites!

With the first books published in the 1970s and the most recent book published within the past 10 years, Laurence Yep's Golden Mountain Chronicles follows the Young family from China to America as they live throughout American history. Not all of the protagonists are immigrants, but they all touch upon immigration stories.

Listed in chronological order of each book's setting, here are the relevant immigration stories:

The Serpent's Children - In 1849, eight year-old Cassia Young's family fights the Manchus. Her little brother Foxfire leaves to find his fortune in Gold Mountain America.

Mountain Light - In 1855, Squeaky Lau's family is in the middle of a feud with Cassia Young's family, but when the two actually meet, they develop a romantic friendship. To prove himself, Squeaky leaves China and travels to America.

Dragon's Gate - In 1867, Cassia's adopted son Otter follows his uncle Firefox to California to help build the transcontinental railroad during the worst winter possible.

Dragonwings - In 1903, eight year-old Moon Shadow Lee immigrates to San Francisco's Chinatown to work for his father's laundry business, and he helps fulfill his father's dream of flight.

Laurence Yep's following novels, all published more recently, feature American-born Chinese protagonists, though immigration stories are significant themes in the books as well. Really, they belong in Week 4 when we cover the hyphenated American experience, but here they are as part of the Golden Mountain Chronicles:

The Traitor - In 1885, Otter's Chinese American son Joseph meets and befriends white American Michael Purdy in a Wyoming mining town. Told from the perspectives of both boys.

Child of the Owl - In 1965, twelve year-old American-born Casey moves to San Francisco's Chinatown to live with her grandmother, who tells Casey about her Chinese immigrant heritage.

Sea Glass - In 1970, Craig Chin's family moves from San Francisco's Chinatown to the small town of Conception, California, where he faces intolerance.

Thief of Hearts - In 1995, half Chinese American, half white, all American Stacy, Casey's daughter, lives in a San Francisco suburb and is forced to confront her Chinese heritage when her parents ask her to befriend a newly immigrated Chinese schoolmate.

As a whole, the scope of history taken from the immigration and Chinese American angle shown in Laurence Yep's Golden Mountain Chronicles is impressive. As I am reading my way through these novels, I often question whether the Chinese-born protagonists are overly too American in their voices and points of view, but Yep's fast-paced writing style often propels me forward towards the end.

I noticed that as soon as we enter the 1960s, the Chinese Americans are American-born rather than immigrants, which are secondary characters in these later novels. This shift in protagonist's original nationality makes sense because Yep is chronicling a Chinese American family. Yet, there are still many modern-day Chinese immigrants adjusting to the strange country that is America. Interestingly enough, all the contemporary Asian American immigrant novels that I'm researching are not about Chinese immigrants. Anyone have any suggestions? Also, I'm wondering are there any other immigrant series written by one author.

Another theme popular in children's picture books are immigration stories based on the real life experiences of a family member.

Grandfather's Journey written and illustrated by Allen Say follows Grandfather's multiple journeys: his first trip from Japan to America, his exploration of America, his return to Japan to find a wife, his return with his wife to California where his daughter was born, his family's return to Japan where his daughter married and later raised Allen. Grandfather always longed to visit America one last time, but he never makes that trip because of World War II. At the very ending of the book, Allen himself immigrates from Japan to America as a young man and has returned to Japan several times since: "The funny thing is, the moment I am in one country, I am homesick for the other."

Journey to Ellis Island: How My Father Came to America by Carol Bierman and illustrated by Laurie McGraw is about a Russian-Jewish family's immigration experience through Ellis Island. Eleven year-old Yehuda had lost his father and sister in Russia while the Germans were attacking, and Yehuda himself was wounded and lost his finger before arriving at Ellis Island. The inspectors at Ellis Island won't allow sick people into America, and it seems that Yehuda and his family would be sent back to Russia. To prove his health, Yehuda runs twice around Ellis Island, and the family is allowed into America, where they are reunited with Yehuda's older brother.

Landed by Milly Lee and illustrated by Yangsook Choi is based on the childhood immigration of the author's father-in-law. This book is focused on the unpleasant Angel Island Immigration Station experience, where many Chinese immigrants were detained for over 4 weeks. Because this was his first journey to America, twelve year-old Sun must memorize facts about his house, his family tree, and other personal details. Sun's father helps and accompanies Sun across the ocean, but Sun is left at Angel Island, where he is rigorously interviewed and tested about his personal life. He wonders if he can pass, especially because he is not great with directional questions. After 4 weeks, he passes multiple interrogations and mets his father and brothers in San Francisco.

Though set in the early 1900s, these books were published after 1990. One theme common among real life immigrants is that at least one especially adventurous person (usually the oldest brother or the father) ventures to America first. Then the rest of the family follows. Another common immigrant theme is that they come to America not just for the opportunities but to escape one war, famine, oppression, poverty.

I'm curious to learn more about historical immigration picture books published before 1990. Any recommendations?

The immigration story into America is so wide and unique. Too many stories to count. Today Renee and I will be delving into the picture books portraying the child immigration experience. I have chosen historical, and she will cover contemporary stories.

The lyrical When Jessie Came Across the Sea by Amy Hest and illustrated by P.J. Lunch features the journey of 13 year-old orphaned Jessie, who is chosen by her village rabbi to go to America. After passing through Ellis Island, Jessie works for a seamstress in New York City. For years Jessie learned English and sewed for "Cousin Kay" while writing letters to her Grandmother and reuniting with a special friend met on the ship. Jessie works and works and saves and saves until she has enough money to bring her Grandmother over to America for Jessie's wedding. A big chunk of this book centers around Jessie's actual trip overseas, and the clash of the cultures when she arrives in America is minimized. But it is a lovely, lyrical picture book with a wonderful heart-warming ending.

Jessie's first letter to her Grandmother: "I wish you could see the pushcarts and shops and the trolleys speeding by. But there are too many people in America, and the streets are not gold."

Set in 1865, Coolies written by Yin and beautifully illustrated by her husband Chris Soentpiet follows brothers Shek and Little Wong from Canton province of China to San Francisco to the Sierra mountains where the boys labored among many other Chinese labeled as "Coolies" and Irish immigrants to build the Transcontinental Railroad. They worked through the most dangerous conditions, extreme heat and bitter snow for four years.

Since the setting is before the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, this tale focuses less on the actual immigration journey and more on the hard, perilous work and strong brotherly bond between the boys. Also, the story begins and ends with a contemporary Chinese-American grandmother telling her grandson about their ancestors, which personally as a reader I could have done without, but I understand the importance.

The sequel to Coolies, Brothers by Yin and illustrated by Chris Soentpiet features Ming, the younger, more carefree brother of Shek and Little Wong. In contrast to the hard work of his much older brothers, Ming stays with Shek, who owns a general store in San Francisco, and ventures outside the Chinatown borders to befriend an Irish boy named Patrick, who teaches Ming how to read and write English. While Shek himself expresses that the Chinese should stick together, he allows the friendship after the two boys help save the store. Historically, the Irish hated the Chinese during this era because they competed for jobs building the railroad. However, this is a nice fictional story about how a feeling of brotherhood transcends bloodlines and race.

Maggie's Amerikay by Barbara Timblerlake Russell, illustrated by Jim Burke, centers around twelve year old Irish Maggie adjusting to the culture in New Orleans. The inner conflict in this story arises from Maggie's father's insistence that she go to school, yet most children are working in the cigar factories. When Maggie's mother falls ill with yellow fever, Maggie worries about the lack of income and earns money rolling cigars and writing down the stories of Daddy Clements, who was forced to journey from Africa to America and fought in the American Civil War. As Maggie learns about another immigrant's culture, she shares her own Irish stories and listens to the beginnings of jazz music.

All published since 1997, these historical stories all take place in American before 1900. These children come to America not to play but to work, whether it be the back-breaking manual labor of building the railroad or running a general store or rolling cigars or sewing lace. In the latter two books, the theme of friendship transcending race and culture is incredibly strong and promotes an ideal of a truly harmonious multicultural America.

During our third week of Crossing Cultural Borders, we will explore various stories where the child/teen protagonist immigrates into America.

Why is immigration (entering America) so much more compelling a topic as compared to emmigration (leaving America) or even traveling abroad? What about immigration stories makes it so popular?

Perhaps because these immigration/assimilation stories force us, specifically the American readers, to re-examine our own culture through the eyes of an immigrant who has never seen that which we consider normal? Perhaps we are seeking a new perspective on something that we usually take for granted. Also, unlike other countries, every American has immigration stories somewhere in the family history, and reliving an immigration story can help one discover a sense of self.

America has made a name for itself as the land of immigrants, the land of freedom and equality for all, though as history progresses that definition has shifted. From the beginning, America certainly wasn't a free country for African slaves and their descendants. Nor was America exactly fair giving Native American Indians the most undesirable desert lands for their reservations. Nor was America free to its some of its citizens during World War II, when thousands of Japanese-Americans were forced to relocate (and thus lose all their property and possessions) and live in camps in the middle of the desert. Nor was America exactly welcoming of all peoples in laws like the Chinese Exclusion act in effect from 1882 to 1945. Et cetera.

Yet for all its faults, America is still seen as the land of opportunity, attracting immigrants from all over the world since its inception and even today. America has often been called the melting pot of the world, and the struggle to assimilate has always been a huge conflict for immigrants, no matter where they settle or what time period they arrive. Learning American English, learning American customs, adapting to the strange American foods, these struggles, juxtaposed to the challenge of retaining cultural and personal identity within America, are often found in many immigrant stories.

So this week we will look at historical and contemporary immigration stories. As always, please feel free to comment sharing your recommendations and ideas!

I'm curious to know if you are a fan of multicultural literature but not fantasy and/or vice versa, why do you like reading one but not the other? Because I really believe there are so many similarities!

For my final post for Re-landscaping the Hero's Journey, I want to explore one more type of fantasy stories that cross cultural borders, which is time travel.

If a child travels far back in time, such a journey forces the child to confront a different culture, which is very similar to the Stranger in a Strange Land concept. Even better, the following books feature child protagonists who belong to an American cultural minority.

The Devil's Arthimetic by Jane Yolen is about a 12 year old girl Hannah who travels from 1988 back to 1942 in Poland, where she is trapped in the body of another Jewish girl Chaya, who is taken to the concentration camp, where she sacrifices her own life for a friend. The novel ends with Hannah returning to her own time and remembering Chaya's experiences.

The Legend of Zoey by Candie Moonshower is told from the diaries of two girls: modern 13 year old Zoey, a girl struggling with her Native American heritage, and 13 year old Prudence, whose family is settling in the Missouri territory during the early 1800s. When Zoey is transported back to Prudence's time, Zoey experiences a clash of cultures in their clothes and ignorance of modern day medicine. While saving Prudence's family before the big earthquake, Zoey also learns more about the Native American Indians and resolves her issues with her heritage before she returns to modern times.

In Archer's Quest by Linda Sue Park, the time traveler is not the child protagonist but a historical figure, Chu-mong, legendary ruler of ancient Korea over 2000 years ago. In 1999, Korean-American sixth-grader Kevin is working on his boring history homework when Chu-mong appears in his bedroom. By the end of the day, Kevin must figure out how to return Chu-mong back to his time period or history and the present would be forever changed. As he teaches Chu-mong about everyday modern inventions like the computer, electric lights, telephones and cars, Kevin himself is learning more about Korean culture and history.

In all three novels above and completely following the traditional hero's journey and Stranger in a Strange Land plot line, at the end, the multicultural contemporary child protagonist returns to her/his own time period enlightened with amazing historical knowledge and memories that should never be forgotten.

While portal fantasies are usually about children crossing a portal into a fantastic magical realm, other more contemporary fantasies blur the lines between our normal everday world and the magical subculture that co-exists along with our world. In addition, the contemporary child protagonist often discovers that he is special, raised in the normal world yet born of the magical subculture, and destined to be a hero that will save both world from the greatest evil.

What is so special about Harry Potter? For the first 10 years of his life, he believes he is an ordinary boy. Then on his eleventh birthday, he finds out there an entire magical subculture and that he is a wizard born with special powers, but not just any wizard. Harry is special even among the wizards because he was the only known person to survive an attack from the evil Voldemort.

Along the same lines, Rick Riordan's popular series Percy Jackson and the Olympians. In the first book, The Lightning Thief, Percy Jackson, a twelve year old troublemaker who has been diagnosed with dyslexia and ADD, discovers that his weaknesses were actually signs that he is a demi-god, half-god. Because his father is one of the most powerful Olympian gods, Percy himself has more power and the greatest destiny to save his friends, his family, and both the magical and real world.

Holly Black's dark fantasy Tithe stars a teenage girl who thinks she is half white and half Japanese, but in reality she discovers she is a changeling, a minor faery, which is even more "other." Yet her mind is very much a mind of this word, and her tolerance for iron is higher than most faeries, which helps her overcome her enemies.

Another fun consequence to having the fantasy culture co-exist with the ordinary world is seeing the hidden magical side of our world reframed in magical terms. Whether the Hogwarts Express is hiding at Platform 9 and 3/4 or the Mount Olympus is perched secretly at the top of the Empire State Building or the secret side of the hill is where the Dark Unseely Court congregate, our familiar, ordinary world has an additional fresh fantastic facet. Usually, the normal humans are in complete ignorance of the existence of magic, so the children usually are further stressed to cover up their magic for fear of being found.

Why are fantastic stories about magical multicultural children so popular nowadays? Perhaps a sign of the times? Before the 1970s, there few magical stories of a child raised with humble beginnings and then realizing they were really special, and not all of them were American. The King Arthur story is perhaps one of the most famous.

For Americans, there could be so many reasons. Perhaps because we were heavily influenced by the Star Wars original movies released almost 30 years ago. Perhaps also because the children born since the 1970s have grown up after the Civil Rights Movement. Also in 1970s, there was a national interest towards finding one's cultural roots. Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston had mentioned in her talk, America has evolved from assimilation and elimination of one's family culture of the melting pot to a mosaic model, which allows celebration of different languages, foods, customs.

The powerful link between one's blood and cultural heritage is compelling even if it is magical, since one's sense of self can be linked to knowing one's genetic heritage.

Any thoughts or suggestions for other titles?

One thing about fantasy novels, authors tend to write series rather than stand alone novels, perhaps because the worlds are so painstakingly crafted that it seems a shame to spend all this time on just one story. But what about picture books?

As a child reader I was extremely literal, preferring realistic fiction. So when I was the target age for picture books, I really didn't understand the appeal of Maurice Sendack's Where the Wild Things Are. Now as an adult, I have a real appreciation for the fun romping text and the whimsical-scary details of every monster. At the center of all the chaos is the boy protagonist Max, of the real human world.

Since picture books are traditionally popular in illustrating the single fairy tale, Max's journey is unique as it is an original fantasy featuring Stranger in the Strangest Land. After misbehaving in his wolf suit, Max is sent to bed without supper. His home is clearly based in the real world, but as his imagination grows, he literally crosses the border of a vast ocean into the jungle where The Wild Things reside.

What is striking is the symmetry of the overall layout design that so closely mirrors the emotional and physical journey of wild Max. The pictures grow as his imagination and wildness grows into the 6 page rumpus spread consisting of all pictures and no words. When Max says "No" and decides not to remain in the jungle, the pictures shrink as he sails back home and finds supper that was "still warm."

Can you recommend any other Stranger in the Strangest Land fantasy travels illustrated in picture book format?

Unlike Harry Potter, who I believe intrinsically is a multicultural character, many of the protagonists of classic children's fantasy are children completely of our normal world. Perhaps they have a great destiny, but unlike Harry, who has a special scar and magical wizard powers, these children's skills, knowledge, education level are just average. Rather, they are ordinary characters forced into extraordinary circumstances.

So there is a context of a deeper connection between fantasy (specifically those classic children's fantasy following the hero's journey) and multicultural stories (specifically those stories that fall into the Stranger in the Strange Land story line).

These average, normal children physically cross over into a strange, wondrously magical world, where they explore the strange new world, collect magical items and defeat the magical world's greatest evil, often with the most unexpected, simplest solutions.

In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum, Dorothy is transported by a tornado from Kansas to the land of Oz, where her house kills the Wicked Witch of the East. Taking the witch's silver shoes (I'm following the book), Dorothy, with her faithful dog Toto, collects unlikely companions, follows the yellow brick road to the meet the Wizard, who sends them kill the Wicked Witch of the West. Dorothy melts the witch with a bucket of water, and when she and her companions return, the wizard is a fraud. After searching for a way out of Oz, Dorothy learns her silver shoes are the key.

Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis are destined to be the Kings and Queens of Narnia, but only after they first help Aslan save Narnia from the neverending winter of the evil White Witch. Peter battles with his magical sword and shield, Susan with her magical bow and arrows and horn, and Lucy heals with her magical potion. Edmund never received his gifts because he was with the witch. In later books, Polly and Eustace cross over, too. Personally I wish that they would keep the original order of this series.

Though A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle is technically science fiction, there are so many aspects that fit with fantasy, as Meg, Calvin, and Charles Wallace, with assistance from their supernatural friends, "wrinkle" their way through space in search of Meg and Charles Wallace's scientist father and must confront the monstrous IT. Though Charles Wallace is a genius, it is Meg who defeats IT through the power of love.

Published around ten years ago, Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy is already considered a classic. Though the first book is pure fantasy set in a magical world similar to ours about the adventures of a girl named Lyra, the second book is a portal fantasy. Will Parry of The Subtle Knife is a normal kid who crosses over into Lyra's world and other worlds by discovering a window that was cut with the magical knife. During his adventures, Will learns more about the history of his own father, and Will and Lyra don't confront The Authority until the third and final book.

These heroic, exploring children are never completely alone. They travel in groups without normal adults because if adults were around, the children would have no freedom to make choices (and mistakes) and shape their own destinies.

After saving the strange world, the children always complete the hero's journey and return to the world they originate because as Dorothy says, "there's no place like home."

What do you think? Do you recommend any other portal fantasies?