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Summary
Summary
In this beautiful novel in verse, a Chinese-American girl contends with school bullies, tries to solve the mystery of her sister's strange illness, and finds strength and validation at the local tennis court.
Frances Chin, a 10-year old Chinese-American girl, lives in the suburbs of Detroit with her immigrant parents and older sister, Clara. At school Frances copes with bullies and the loneliness that comes with not quite fitting in. At home, she feels a different kind of aloneness. Her parents are preoccupied with work and worry about Clara, whose hair is inexplicably falling out. But, with the help of her friend Annie, Frances is determined to play Nancy Drew and solve the mystery of Clara's condition. She also faces the everyday challenges and unexpected thrills of being a tween, especially when she receives encouragement from a tennis coach. Although she struggles to speak up, Frances's powerful inner voice resonates in gorgeous imagery and evocative free verse.
"Love and more love to Victoria Chang for her lyrical and gentle prose poems that, in excavating a deep secret, usher readers beyond shame and into the warmth of understanding." --Thanhhà Lại, New York Times bestselling and National Book Award-winning author of Inside Out & Back Again, and most recently Butterfly Yellow
Author Notes
Victoria Chang's two previous collections of poetry are Salvinia Molesta, published by the University of Georgia Press as part of the VQR Poetry Series in 2008, and Circle, published by the Southern Illinois University Press as the winner of the Crab Orchard Open Competition. Her poems appear in the Believer, POETRY, American Poetry Review, Kenyon Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, Tin House, New England Review, Colorado Review, Smartish Pace, Blackbird, and elsewhere. Chang holds degrees from the University of Michigan, Harvard, and Stanford, as well as an MFA from Warren Wilson. She works in marketing and communications and lives in Southern California.
Reviews (3)
Horn Book Review
This semiautobiographical verse novel begins with eleven-year-old Chinese American girl Frances Chin witnessing an attack on her older sister, Clara, behind their school. (Frances herself has endured taunts centered on race: youre SO SO ugly / open your eyes / he laughs with his fingers pulling / his eyes to make / them squinty.) But with passive bystander classmates and a mother who stresses maintaining family honor, Frances remains silent, internalizing her feelings. The one place she feels a sense of control is on the tennis court, playing with her friend Annie and eventually on the schools team (I feel like I can / lift the world with / my racket). After noticing some worrying behaviors (and hair loss) in her sister, she finds and ultimately reads Claras diary, which reveals Claras struggles with trichotillomania, also called hair-pulling disorder. In a heartfelt scene, Frances overcomes emotional barriers and silently reveals to Clara that she knows her secret. Themes of bullying, empathy, family, and identity are explored through Changs spare prose. The author elegantly expresses Francess complex emotions and provides an intimate portrait of immigrant lives. An appended note provides insight into Changs experience growing up in an immigrant family not familiar with mental health issues such as trichotillomania. Kristine Techavanich July/August 2020 p.135(c) Copyright 2020. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Rooted in personal experience, this novel in verse captures the trials of being a young Chinese immigrant in suburban Detroit. Frances Chin, the 11-year-old daughter of Chinese immigrants, struggles to adapt to life in America with her parents and older sister, Clara, who is experiencing inexplicable hair loss. Clara's only wig is stolen by school bullies. Endless doctors' appointments fail to unearth answers. Frances is bullied at school and feels overlooked at home. Like Nancy Drew, Frances becomes obsessed with determining the cause of Clara's hair loss. In five chapters of short, free-verse poems, Chang shows young Frances blossoming with the help of a friend named Annie, who is also Chinese American, and a tennis coach. Readers first see the pain and loneliness of being different before Annie's friendship distracts Frances from her daily troubles. Frances channels her frustration onto the tennis court under the tutelage of an interested coach, which gives her the strength and courage to find the root of her sister's illness. The starting point of a tennis match is stated as "love, love"--a place of equality. Amid the challenges of first-generation life, Frances grasps onto the hope that there is a level playing field in this country. This lyrical story shows that, for some, the pressure of success is hard to bear. In her author's note, Chang describes her sister's experiences with mental illness and provides links to resources. An expressive book of poetry that provides a glimpse at life in an immigrant family. (Verse fiction. 8-12) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Growing up as an immigrant can be difficult, even if you are fortunate enough to live in a well-to-do area. Eleven-year-old Frances is bullied at school, feels pressure from her parents to excel, and worries about her older sister, Clara, whose hair is falling out. She finds solace in playing tennis with her one Asian friend, and the two decide to play Nancy Drew to uncover Clara's problem. Told in verse, this fictionalized memoir speaks to the stresses experienced by many immigrant children, who often receive mixed messages urging them to take advantage of everything America has to offer but cautioning them to remain true to their first culture. Chang also shines a spotlight on the destructiveness of undiagnosed mental illness (Clara, who secretly pulls her own hair out, suffers from trichotillomania, a form of OCD). While it's unfortunate that the bullies are labeled Jewish, and it's disappointing that the ending offers little hope that tensions for these sisters will ease, Frances' experiences will resonate with many readers.
Table of Contents
| 1 Missing |
| See |
| The Disappearing Wig |
| The Chins |
| Winters |
| Books |
| The Secret in The Secret of the Old Clock |
| No One |
| Wig Shop |
| Pin by Pin |
| The Missing Wig |
| Stories |
| My Mom's Car |
| Talk |
| Neighbors |
| The Birds |
| Sally Levin |
| Tennis |
| Jogging |
| A Good Plan |
| Bathroom Break |
| The Wig |
| No Wig |
| 2 The beginning of something |
| Annie |
| Tennis |
| Mystery |
| A Stranger |
| The Hill |
| Focus |
| Hair Dream #1 |
| Clue Collecting |
| Bushes |
| Wet Wig |
| School |
| Double |
| Dance |
| Searching |
| Maybe |
| Happy |
| Nothing |
| Hair Dream #2 |
| Chinese School |
| From |
| Dragon Inn |
| The Apartments |
| New Idea |
| Deadline |
| Light |
| Money |
| Deflated |
| 3 Maybe |
| New Plan |
| Fix It |
| Hair Dream #3 |
| Haircuts |
| Hair Dream #4 |
| A Conversation |
| My Family |
| Hair Dream #5 |
| The Doctors |
| Hair Dream #6 |
| Doctors' Offices |
| Hair Dream #7 |
| Bare |
| Fingers |
| Hair Dream #8 |
| Brown Packages |
| Maybe |
| 4 Face |
| Bubble |
| Watching |
| Three Theories |
| Experiments |
| Library |
| Research |
| Illnesses |
| Laughing |
| Something |
| Sleuth |
| The Diary |
| Open It |
| Open |
| 5 I am here |
| The Wig Store |
| The Car |
| Hair Dream #9 |
| The Missing Wig |
| Josh and Steve |
| Egg Rolls |
| Tennis Tournament |
| The New Wig |
| The Tournament |
| Here |
| The Win |
| Letters |
| Hands |
| Hair Dream #10 |
| Never Again |
| Secrets |
| Author's Note |
