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A review by balletbookworm
In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Bette Bao Lord
4.0
I'd been meaning to re-read In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson for a while - last read in 5th grade, so it's been a minute - but never quite got around to it. But I needed a book to fill my last task for the Book Riot Read Harder challenge and this was available on audio at the library :)
Re-reading as an adult, the narrative does feel heavy-handed at times, but almost 30 extra years of life experience brings out a lot of details I missed. Such as Shirley being just thrown into a fifth grade class despite the fact that she knows almost no English, how diverse her classroom is (hello, Brooklyn in the 1940s), and how some of the language the American kids use hints at larger issues of discrimination (such as telling Shirley to go back to the laundry or calling her Chop Suey). But Shirley's story feels so universal, being the new kid and wanting to belong so very, very badly. I'm glad it held up after so many years.
Re-reading as an adult, the narrative does feel heavy-handed at times, but almost 30 extra years of life experience brings out a lot of details I missed. Such as Shirley being just thrown into a fifth grade class despite the fact that she knows almost no English, how diverse her classroom is (hello, Brooklyn in the 1940s), and how some of the language the American kids use hints at larger issues of discrimination (such as telling Shirley to go back to the laundry or calling her Chop Suey). But Shirley's story feels so universal, being the new kid and wanting to belong so very, very badly. I'm glad it held up after so many years.