American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (2006)

I love it when books come my way through serendipity. A student was looking for this book, we couldn't find it in the library, so I put out a search slip on it. Since I had requested the search, they brought me the book. It looked interesting enough to read.

This is a fascinating graphic novel about the Chinese-American experience intertwined with a traditional Chinese tale. There are three stories being told at once. One is the time-honored fable of a monkey king that wants to be a god. The second is about a Chinese-American boy who's family moves to a new neighborhood and he has a hard time making friends and finding his place in the school. The third is about a teen, who's life is being ruined by a crazy Chinese cousin, who displays all the negative Chinese stereotypical traits. I really liked this combination of traditional wisdom with today's world and a good glimpse into the experience of Chinese-Americans, in an appealing graphic novel format.