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Title: Homesick: My Own Story (Novel) by Jean Fritz, Margot Tomes ISBN: 0-698-11782-4 Publisher: PaperStar Book Pub. Date: 01 July, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.71 (21 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: In Relation
Comment: Jean Fritz was born an American girl in China. Growing up she wanted to know about her American life. Throughout her earlier years she can only see her American life in letters from her grandma (lives in america). Finally, after waiting many years her family decides to go back. When she gets to America she questions whether or not she will fit in, after living on the opposite side of the world.
During the coarse of the book, I liked the story's reality to everyday issues. They are the same no matter where you live. Whether it being teased and not wanting to go to school or begging mother for that special something for christmas. There are so many cultures and different beliefs, that when it comes to basic standards of living it is all the same.
I did not dislike anything in Homesick. Although, I did learn about the separation of Chinese and Americans. Not in a bad way. The Americans had a small park blocked off to Chinese in order to have a place in comparison to America. Therefore, by finishing the book I give it a thumbs up and can relate to being homesick.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Journey with Fritz
Comment: This engaging story gives you a view of how Jean fritz felt and lived in China during the war.Her move to the USA was exciting for her as she encounted many 'mishaps and troubles' along the way.You should reallly read this book, if you are interested in biographies and foreign countries, such as China.I give this book 5 stars as she describes well in detail about her life and inner thoughts during the early 1920's.I am reading this book as an literature assignment and felt that this book was the one.Jean Fritz is a great author!
Rating: 5
Summary: There's no place.
Comment: A really remarkable book. Jean Fritz is author of many an exciting children's biography. If you've read "Why Don't You Get a Horse, Sam Adams?" or "Can't You Make Them Behave, King George?" then you know her works already. Turning her talents towards a slightly more recent history, Fritz takes a good long look at her own life. Having grown up in China in the early 1920s, this is a story of a child trying to discover where she fits in.
First of all, you have to admire Fritz's candor. The very first thing she does is state in the Forward that she considers this a fiction. Though the facts are true here and there, the author has taken some liberties with time and memory. She obviously cannot remember everything that happened perfectly, so she has filled in the gaps as best as possible. Though, she points out, "it does not feel like fiction to me. It is my story, told as truly as I can tell it". THANK YOU, Jean Fritz. How many books do we read where the author claims that everything within the book is the whole truth and nothing but the truth, while taking wild leaps in narrative and interpretation? Finally, we have an author that admits that much of this book may be considered fiction, though she herself remembers it as fact. Such honesty is admirable, and exceedingly rare in non-fiction writers.
As for the story itself, Fritz is very good at what she does. The writing here is superb. Living in a very sketchy time in China's history, little Jean was in the unfortunate position of living in a country where foreigners were finally not being tolerated with much kindness any longer. Often times Chinese peasants rail against Jean for being the kind of "foreign devil" that is a bane to their country. Fritz never condemns these people, and even makes note at the back of this book the reasons behind their dislike and distrust. China was a country that was continually being divided into smaller and smaller pieces by the invading colonists. Neither does the character of Jean ever forget that the servants who work for her are human beings as well. Her parents often do fall into the master-servant manner of thinking, a fact that Jean objects to. They do not learn much about the world in which they live. They instead attempt to recreate their own American lives in a foreign land. But Jean knows that there are aspects of Chinese life that she vastly prefers to the life of her parents. The fact that she recognizes this is impressive. The fact that she can relay it years after the fact in this book, is astounding.
If I have any objections to this book at all they are directed not at the author, but at the illustrator. Margot Tomes has her points. She is not necessarily a bad illustrator. But in this particular book her pictures are superfluous and unnecessary. Sometimes they even touch upon the offensive without really going there. While Fritz never condemns the native Chinese for their opinions, Tomes draws them looking sneaky or sordid at inappropriate times. One such example is in a scene where Jean's servants feed her cat outside, not knowing she's around. The scene in the book is rather touching. Until this time, Jean was half afraid her cook was trying to poison the family. Knowing him to be a person capable of caring for her cat (as he says, "A cat is a cat. There are no foreign cats, no Chinese cats, no capitalist cats, no Communist cats. Just cats") she no longer fears his food. Yet the picture accompanying this text shows a shifty eyed servant peering suspiciously over his shoulder as the cats eats. Unnecessary. Somewhat offensive.
Fritz ends this book with a series of photographs displaying her family, friends, and where she lived in China. Combined with the book, these serve as an excellent document about a time little recorded in either adult or children's fiction. Using a unique perspective culled from her own life, Jean Fritz has written one of the most interesting books about the Chinese/American experience existing today. It is an honorable and impressive piece of work.
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Title: Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli ISBN: 0316809063 Publisher: Little, Brown Pub. Date: 01 November, 1999 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Number the Stars (Laurel Leaf Books) by Lois Lowry ISBN: 0440227534 Publisher: Laurel-Leaf Books Pub. Date: 01 March, 1998 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: What's the Big Idea, Ben Franklin? (Paperstar) by Jean Fritz, Margot Tomes ISBN: 0698113721 Publisher: PaperStar Book Pub. Date: 01 May, 1996 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Giver (Readers Circle) by Lois Lowry ISBN: 0440237688 Publisher: Laurel-Leaf Books Pub. Date: 10 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $6.50 |
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Title: The Upstairs Room (Trophy Newbery) by Johanna Reiss ISBN: 006440370X Publisher: HarperTrophy Pub. Date: 30 October, 1990 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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