CUBA15 and AMERICAN BORN CHINESE

Our inadvertent theme this month seemed to be cultural identity struggles. Both of these books deal with main characters trying to find themselves among a split cultural identity.

While most everyone enjoyed CUBA 15 by Nancy Osa, there was a feeling that overall it lacked enough poignant moments that would lend itself for good discussion points regarding multiculturalism with younger readers. There were some feelings of frustration with the book, but we discussed whether this was intentional on the author's part wanting the reader to feel as frustrated as the main character, Violet Paz. We also discussed whether or not the author may have purposefully chosen to not focus on the real angst of the multi-cultural situations in the book and more on the actual coming of age of Violet. Was the author's intent to gloss over some of the racial and cultural situations or was she choosing to be "color blind" and not dwell on the possible tensions and issues? Again, final word on the book from the bookclub: Sweet, enjoyable, but not as poignant as expected.

AMERICAN BORN CHINESE by Gene Luen Yang seemed to capture and force people to think more about the struggle which many multicultural youth face whether American-born within a multicultural family or a new immigrant trying to understand a new culture. The three stories are intricately told through graphic novel. We felt this was an excellent way to tell these stories which are all inter-connected and deal with finding and accepting ones true self. This is a book that anyone can learn a lesson from and resonate with even if they are not specifically Chinese-American. We discussed this book's merit in receiving the 2007 Printz Award and felt that it has a broader resonance for readers than several of the others. Our thoughts: this is an intense, sometimes uncomfortable, but powerful and thought provoking book worthy of its award and honors.