Re-read

I first read this book for school when I was in the 5th grade and I remember it being one of my absolute favorites. And while I never read it again after that until now, and while I didn't remember anything about this book until I just re-read it, I remember the emotions I felt towards this book.

I connect with the main character, Shirley, so much because of her culture and lack of awareness of American culture. While I'm not a first generation Asian American immigrant, I still felt like I was different. I did grow up in a widely Asian community, with my high school graduating class being around 80% Asian, but I have also been much more interested and exposed to Asian culture when I was growing up. I was made fun of for being "weird" or too "fobby" simply because I practiced more traditional Chinese interests.

I empathized with Shirley and her struggles to find her place in America, and also later on when she feels that she is loosing touch with her Chinese heritage. For those of us who are consider ourselves both Asian and American, generally find that we don't necessarily belong to either nationality. An Asian person interested in Asian pop music or prefers Asian food over American food in society's eyes is considered "more Asian", but does that make us any less American? I felt that this book discussed a lot of important issues regarding the first (and second) generation immigrant experience. It also helps that this book is based off of the author's own personal experiences.

I did kind of glaze over the baseball aspects of the book, mainly because I have no interest in sports, but I loved that the author chose to include Jackie Robinson in this book, as he is a black man who had to overcome many obstacles and naysayers and proved his worth. His story is an important one and it would have been nice for the author to incorporate his story more deeply into Shirley's narrative. I also felt that the end of the book was weirdly really patriotic and I generally don't like that in books but that's more of a personal preference.

I think this book is an important one for people of all ages to read, to understand the immigrant experience and the difficulties immigrants go through (and went though in the 1900s -- this book takes place in 1947). I'm hoping kids are still reading this for school as it will better help shape their understanding of other culture's experiences!