Girl In Translation by Jean Kwok Grade-A Percent- 98%/100%
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 like the staggering degree of her poverty, the weight of her family’s future resting on her shoulders, or 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.
Through Kimberly’s story, author Jean Kwok, who also emigrated from Hong Kong as a young girl, brings to the page the lives of countless immigrants who are caught between the pressure to succeed in America, their duty to their family, and their own personal desires, exposing a world that we rarely hear about.
Written in an indelible voice that dramatizes the tensions of an immigrant girl growing up between two cultures, surrounded by a language and world only half understood, Girl in Translation is an unforgettable and classic novel of an American immigrant-a moving tale of hardship and triumph, heartbreak and love, and all that gets lost in translation.-goodreads
Non-spoiler review
Kimberly Chang and her mother just moved from Hong Kong. They are very poor and they live in an abandoned building. The only reason they live their is because Kimberly's lousy aunt. Kimberly goes to a public school in the day time and after school she goes and helps her mother work at the factory that her aunt and uncle own. In school she meets this girl named Annette and they soon become very good friends. Kimberly barley understands anything in school since she does not know much English and she tries not to talk to her teacher who is very racist. The factory is the only bright spot for Kimberly since she meets this guy named Matt who is the son of another factory worker. Days go by for Kimberly and her mother. They suffer in their unlit and dirty apartment but they manage. They still are very poor but they have enough money for food and water and to get around. Kimberly starts getting a lot better at her English and at her studies. Kimberly and her mother eventully move to another apartment after finding out that any day the place they lived in could have been smashed. The found out that what they were doing in the factory was actually labor. Kimberly gets a scholarship at a school that Annette is going to thanks to her school principle. Kimberly's mother finds a job at a bead shop since she quit working at the factory. Kimberly develops a relationship with Matt and they stay together for a while. The story then forwards 12 years ahead. Kimberly is a dentist and lives in a nice house with her child and Ma.
My review
I personally really liked this book a lot. I like how Jean Kwok based the story a little bit on herself. I also really liked the story line and writing style of this author. The reason I did not give it the extra 2% is because at some parts it kind of got boring but for the most part I was really into the book and really liked it. If you read this book I hope you like it just like I did.
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