American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

The final book selection that I choose is called American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang. This graphic novel has three stories and they all have interesting aspects to it because they touch different social issues. Some aspects of the stories deal with racism, stereotypical jokes about Chinese cultures and finding self identity.  American Born Chinese has three stories in one novel. The first story is about the legendary tale of The King Monkey which is folk tale story in China. This tale represented   honesty and being true to one’s self and others. The second tale is about the second generation immigrant boy from China, his name is Jin Wang. This tale deals with different aspect of human lives such as making friends, being new to a place and wanting to fit in the society that you live and also being in love for the first time. The last story is about white boy named Danny, who has a Chinese cousin named Chin-Kee who visits annually. Danny’s cousin fits into the ignorant stereotypical of Chinese people, the way she dresses, her accent and everything else about her depicts racial remarks and I thought that the author wanted to address such commentary.  In ending, American Born Chinese was deeply three interesting stories in one graphic novel told three pictures and words. I would recommend this book to all readers and do not let the graphic part of the book throw you off because it has great contents to it. The stories have common themes and they all come together towards the end of the book.