American Born Chinese

Author: Gene Luen Yang
Copyright: 2006
Pages: 235
Genre: Grapic Novel
Reviewer: The Dark Knight

Gene Luen Yang's American Born Chinese is a humorous, fun to read graphic novel about three totally different stories and how they relate. The first is the legendary Chinese tale of the Monkey King. Legend says that the Monkey King was sick of his puny primate form so he decied to be the most powerful monkey on the planet. He did so by mastering The Four Major Disiplines Of Invulnerability; invulnerability to fire, invulnerability to ice, invulnerability to drowning, and invulnerability to wounds. But since he wished to be the best, this was not good enough for him so he mastered The Four Major Discplines Or Bodily Form; giant form, minature form, hair-into-clones, and shapeshift. The second tale in the novel is of Jin Wang, a teenager who has adjusted to life in America and is struggling to get up the courage to ask out Amelia, the girl he is in love with. The third is the story of Danny, an American teen who is visited once a year by his foreign cousin Chin-Kee, who ruins his life. He has switched high schools three times because Chin-Kee has ruined his reputation and made him known not as Danny, but as Chin-Kee's cousin. All three of these enjoyable stories relate in a totally unpredictable way.

Although the end of American Born Chinese was extremely peculiar, all in all I really enjoyed it. I thought that it was a humorous read that included a good, meaningful story. The illustrations were exquisite as well. i thought that Luen Yang's novel was interesting from page one, in fact I read this book in less than an hour. The only flaw was how odd the ending was. It was almost awful, what I consider to be silly. Ok, so I've said enough - but if you are looking to read a short, enjoyable book, then check out Luen Yang's award winning book.