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A review by bookycnidaria
Ming's Christmas Wishes by Susan L. Gong, Masahiro Tateishi
3.0
Note: Thank you to Shadow Mountain Publishing for the free electronic copy of this book. All opinions are my own. The longer, spoiler-filled version of this review is here.
This was really cute. I don't normally review children's books, but this one piqued my interest, so I thought I'd give it a try.
Ming's Christmas Wishes follows a little girl named Ming as she struggles to find an identity for herself in 1930s California, torn between her Chinese roots and her American life. When her mother vetoes Ming's request for a Christmas tree, Ming's father finds a compromise, in the process teaching Ming a little bit about her family history and heritage.
My favorite part of the book was the illustrations, which are gorgeous full-spread paintings done by Japanese illustrator Masahiro Tateishi. They're so soft and cozy, and they set the stage beautifully. The trouble is that there's not much substance to the story. The writing is okay, if a bit awkward in places, but it doesn't make me feel anything in particular. I get what Gong was trying to do, but the book's stated purpose got muddled in the telling. The story is somewhat unresolved, and the characters are hard to pinpoint because they feel more like sketches than like people I might actually know. And maybe this is why the book feels so deeply impersonal to me: even though it was inspired by family stories, it doesn't feel specific to this one particular family. It feels like it came out of a mold. It feels like a story that could be told by any Chinese American raised in the 1930s. It's just very sweet and very bland, and that, in the end, was what pushed it – at least for me – from four stars to three.
This was really cute. I don't normally review children's books, but this one piqued my interest, so I thought I'd give it a try.
Ming's Christmas Wishes follows a little girl named Ming as she struggles to find an identity for herself in 1930s California, torn between her Chinese roots and her American life. When her mother vetoes Ming's request for a Christmas tree, Ming's father finds a compromise, in the process teaching Ming a little bit about her family history and heritage.
My favorite part of the book was the illustrations, which are gorgeous full-spread paintings done by Japanese illustrator Masahiro Tateishi. They're so soft and cozy, and they set the stage beautifully. The trouble is that there's not much substance to the story. The writing is okay, if a bit awkward in places, but it doesn't make me feel anything in particular. I get what Gong was trying to do, but the book's stated purpose got muddled in the telling. The story is somewhat unresolved, and the characters are hard to pinpoint because they feel more like sketches than like people I might actually know. And maybe this is why the book feels so deeply impersonal to me: even though it was inspired by family stories, it doesn't feel specific to this one particular family. It feels like it came out of a mold. It feels like a story that could be told by any Chinese American raised in the 1930s. It's just very sweet and very bland, and that, in the end, was what pushed it – at least for me – from four stars to three.