The Dragon's Child: A Story of Angel Island - Laurence Yep

The Dragon's Child is based on actual conversations that the author had with his father and on research done on his own family's immigration through Angel Island. The boy in the story, Gim, has always suspected that he will have to leave China with his father. Gim barely knows anything about his father, and must accompany him on his return to America. Gim is profoundly sorry to have to leave his homeland, and even more concerned about how he will relate to his father. Gim doesn't use his right hand rather than his left as he is told he should, and when he gets nervous he sports a condemning stutter. More than anything he is terrified of having to endure the rigorous physical examination at Angel Island.

I liked this book for Gim's strong voice throughout. Even though I wasn't particularly keen on reading another book about people immigrating to America (it seems to me that my childhood education was nearly saturated with these through some fluke), Gim is a likeable and realistic boy whose emotions are easy to relate to despite his foreign situation. The real joy of this book is seeing how Gim and his father learn to relate to one another, and the eventual relief at the end when Gim and his father make it through Angel Island to their new home. I haven't read anything else by Laurence Yep, but as it compares to other books centering around the same topic, this book is unique for its integration of Chinese culture, the real emotions that it invokes throughout the story, and the discovery of a connection between father and son. Many of the books I read growing up were a touch contrived and the integration of historical facts always seemed somewhat forced. Laurence Yep does a fantastic job of keeping these issues at bay and weaving together a cohesive, enjoyable story,