Description - Shanghai Messenger by Andrea Cheng
A celebration of family and cultural diversity. An exciting yet comforting story of a young girl learning about her heritage and developing her personal identity. In this picture book for older children, 11-year-old Xiao Mei, the child of an American father and a Chinese mother, is persuaded by Grandma Nai Nai in America to take up the invitation from Uncle Hai Tao to spend the summer in Shanghai. Cheng's free-verse story, illustrated with Young's small, expressive line-and-watercolour pictures, shows the child's initial doubts, the plane journey, the arrival and the welcoming young cousins and adults. She makes wontons with Auntie, visits gardens where her great-grandfather's words are carved in the archways and participates in morning Tai Chi exercises. When Xiao Mei returns home to Ohio after a week, she takes gifts, including a fan painted by an uncle that brings a little bit of China to America. Cheng does an admirable job of capturing this experience from the perspective of a child and each free-verse chapter is brief but satisfying. Young's illustrations delicately intertwine with the text, gently supporting each vignette.
A glossary and a pronunciation guide help readers pronounce the Mandarin names and words.
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