NEWBERY AWARD WINNER

I did not find to be racist, despite bearing in mind warnings from others. Jean did respect and also feel compassion for the different Chinese people. The boy with whom she shared oranges, the coolies, her father's friend, her companion. In fact, she admired them.

And she did not so much admire other 'foreign devils' like that schoolboy or that teacher who insisted she sing the British nat'l anthem.

Sure, she wants to be with her grandparents, in a country that feels more like her true home... but I can't imagine holding that against her. It's what her parents told her. Ok, so she's a little uncritical of her parents, but they weren't bad people, and they didn't do wicked things. They meant well and sacrificed a lot because they were doing the best they could to do what they thought was the right service (not righteous, not power-hungry).

My edition, at least, had prologue note, (not enough) illustrations, photos, and history note. I enjoyed the book very much, felt fully immersed in it, and read it in one session when sleep was late coming. ( )

Jean Fritz was born in China and lived there until 1927, when she was twelve. Young Jean had spent her entire life in China, but her parents' memories of home and letters from relatives in Pennsylvania made her feel that she was American--and homesick for a place she'd never seen!

Family photographs and illustrations by Margot Tomes show us the real people behind Jean's vivid and unforgettable stories--memories of picnics on the Great Wall, pranks, holidays in the foreign compound, rebellious moments at her British school. close ties to Chinese friends, and how it felt to be called a "foreign devil" and spat upon in the streets of a turbulent China on the eve of revolution. When her family embarks upon its long journey home, Jean is thrilled, but she wonders: When she arrives in America at last, will she fit in after growing up on "the wrong side of the world?"

Fritz's novelized autobiography of her childhood in China in the 1920s. Fairly interesting, and the glimpse at what was going on in China at the time through a child's eyes is well done. This Newbery Honor Book was written in the early 1980's, but I think it would still appeal to middle grade kiddos today. ( )

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