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Summary
Summary
"A fine novel for early independent readers that conveys lots of information about Thailand and making friends." -- New York Times Book Review
In Thailand she was named Oy, but here in America the teachers call her Olivia. Other things are not so easy to change, however. When Oy draws a portrait of herself with brown hair and eyes as round as coins, her classmate Frankie makes fun of her and calls her Chinese. And the popular girl Liliandra barely speaks to her, until she learns that Oy has something very special: a Thai dancing dress from her grandmother, shimmering with pink silk and golden threads, that makes her look like a princess. Will Oy risk shaming her family to win Liliandra's approval -- and be part of the club she has envied from afar? With compassion and rare insight, Carolyn Marsden tells a simple tale about a young girl who searches for acceptance in a complex culture, while learning to treasure all that she is.
Author Notes
Carolyn Marsden was born in Mexico City to missionary parents. She has been a writer all her life, but THE GOLD-THREADED DRESS is her first book. About THE GOLD-THREADED DRESS she says, "I wrote this story when my half-Thai daughter was being teased at school. As a parent and elementary school teacher, I watched her struggle to establish a cultural identity. I became fascinated with a conflict that is common to many children in our increasingly diverse United States." Carolyn Marsden has an MFA in Writing for Children from Vermont College. After spending the last twenty-five years in Tucson, Arizona, Carolyn Marsden now lives by the ocean in La Jolla, California, with her husband and two daughters.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
A fourth-grade Thai-American student, new to a predominantly Mexican-American school, struggles to fit in with a popular clique. In a starred review, PW wrote, "Zeroing in on a very specific situation, first-time author Marsden hits the issues of this age group squarely and truthfully." Ages 7-9. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
When Oy, who emigrated from Thailand to the United States with her family when she was four, begins fourth grade at a new school, she is teased and excluded because she's different. After she sees a chance to gain some social cachet, she risks both a beloved Thai dress and her self-respect. Marsden avoids clichéd characterizations, and her careful, detail-oriented prose vividly expresses Oy's conundrum. From HORN BOOK Spring 2003, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-5-Oy's family recently moved to a new home and she's feeling lost and friendless because, although there are several immigrant children attending her new school, no one is from her native Thailand. Her journey from lonely outsider to being accepted begins in Carolyn Marsden's The Gold-Threaded Dress (2002) and continues in The Quail Club (2006, both Candlewick). In the first book, class bully Lilliandra sees a photo of Oy (renamed Olivia by her teacher) in her beloved pink silk dress which she wears when performing traditional Thai dances and demands that the girl bring it to school so she and her friends can try it on. If Oy doesn't comply, she will not be able to join Lilliandra's club. Oy desperately wants to fit in, but she knows her parents would be upset if anything happened to the dress. In the second title, Oy has been accepted into the Quail Club and is feeling better about her life. She decides that she wants to perform a solo Thai dance for the school talent show. Lilliandra tries to bully Oy into performing a contemporary American style duet with her. The girl must reconcile her longing to fit in at school with honoring traditional Thai values. Amy Rubinate's narration sensitively and accurately portrays Oy's feelings of confusion and conflicting loyalties. The unhurried pacing is perfect for these universal stories of acceptance and friendship.-Wendy Woodfill , Hennepin County Library, Minnetonka, MN (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Oy silently cries out in frustration that her teacher and classmates do not accept her as Thai; her teacher issues her an "easier-to-remember" English name; and her fourth-grade classmates pull their round eyes into slits and call her "Chinita," little Chinese. Revealing the challenges young immigrants face in a mixed-race school environment, Oy feels torn between the respect she feels for her Thai culture and the acceptance she wants from her American culture. When she draws her family picture, their eyes are as round as those of the boy who teases her most, further exemplifying her will to fit in. She typifies the average fourth-grader's yearning in a way that each reader will recognize or remember. Acceptance into a campus girl's club is contingent upon allowing chubby club members to wear her petite, gold-threaded dress. The slow plot builds to climactic action as school authorities disband and discipline the whole club, whose members are discovered lined up in their underwear waiting for a turn to try on, inadvertently soil, and tear the delicate garment, symbolic of Oy's tender spirit. In an emotional buildup, Oy is forced to face her choices and reconsider her goals. Marsden, in her debut, draws on her own experience as she describes a loving family guiding their daughter in a difficult time. Those who read this short, character-driven story will remember the parallels between their personal experience and the forceful message, concluding that being kinder to new immigrants builds delightful friendships and provides interesting insights into rich cultures. (Fiction. 8-10)
Excerpts
Excerpts
CHAPTER ONE "Chinese, Japanese." Frankie pulled at the edges of his eyes so they looked like slits. "Americanese!" He let his eyes spring back to normal. "I am not Chinese!" Oy wanted to say. But she just shook her head slightly. She put her hands over the picture she'd been drawing. Miss Elsa had her back turned, helping other children clean out the hamster cage. Liliandra was holding the straw-colored hamster, Butterscotch. She transferred him from one bent elbow to the other as he tried to scratch her with his tiny claws. Oy hoped that one day Miss Elsa would allow her to hold Butterscotch, but she'd never asked. Other children always seemed to crowd around the cage first. Frankie teased Oy when Miss Elsa wasn't looking. Because she was new, Oy didn't know whether to talk to her teacher about this or not. Maybe it wasn't serious. Maybe being thought Chinese wasn't a bad thing even though Frankie was trying to make her think so. "Then what are you?" asked Frankie, putting both hands in his pockets, where he kept his special trading cards. She was about to say: Thai. From Thailand. A country near China, but not China. A country with elephants and green jungle. But Frankie was already talking to Santiago instead. Miss Elsa turned around. Oy uncovered her picture. It showed her family. But instead of giving them straight black hair and almond-shaped eyes, she'd chosen the brown crayon for the hair and had made the eyes round as coins. At her old school, no one had said anything to her about being Asian. But since her family had moved across town and she had to go to fourth grade in a new school after the year had begun, this boy Frankie was already bothering her. "What are you drawing?" Frankie continued. "It couldn't be you and your family. They're all Chinese. Those people look Mexican." Mexican? She was trying to make them look American. She glanced up at Frankie's eyes. If only she had eyes like all the others, Frankie wouldn't be teasing her. Because of Frankie, kids on the playground called her China, Spanish for Chinese, or sometimes Chinita, little Chinese. Before Oy came from Thailand, she'd looked at pictures of Americans. They had light hair and skin and eyes. When she'd arrived in America though, she saw people of all colors, including very dark ones with black curly hair and even Thai people. Here at school, the children were mostly brown with round eyes. Just then Liliandra let go of Butterscotch with a squeal. Frankie jumped forward to grab the furry body scampering past his sneakers. When he picked up the hamster, he turned toward Oy. For a moment, it seemed that he would reach out and hand her the soft little animal. But he walked away instead, making a show of stroking and cooing to Butterscotch. _______ THE GOLD-THREADED DRESS by Carolyn Marsden. Copyright (c) 2006 by Carolyn Marsden. Published by Candlewick Press, Inc., Cambridge, MA. Excerpted from The Gold-Threaded Dress by Carolyn Marsden All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
