by Jean Fritz
Published: 1999
Genre: Middle Grade Memoir/Fiction
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Summary:
Jean Fritz shares her life as a child growing up in the middle of China during the mid-twenties. She longs to go “home”. To a place she has only read about in letters from her grandmother, where she can feed chickens. And though this desire grows stronger as the date for departure gets closer, Jean shares her love for the Chinese people, especially her dear Lin Nai Nai. As with any good story, there is trouble and heartache. Through the eyes of a ten-year-old girl, Jean shares about the unrest developing in China towards foreigners. Jean also shares her confusion about how her parents reacted to the death of her baby sister. We glimpse the heart and mind of a young child who experienced so much. In the beginning, Jean informs her readers that most of the stories are true and that all the people are real, but the events are not chronological. As a NF writer, this was very important to her to clarify.
My Take:
Jean Fritz is a TCK. Get this book if you want to see examples of grief, frustration, and raw emotions from a TCK sprinkled with humor and wit. Yes, it’s written for a middle-grade child, but it is a beautifully written memoir of a young TCK. If I write too much more, I must write a spoiler alert. I cried and laughed – maybe partly because we used to live in Wuhan, now a large city that includes Hankou and Wuchang, two cities that play a massive part in this book. Or maybe just the pain of saying “good-bye.” Either way, there is a reason it is a Newbery Honor book.
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