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Reviewed by:
  • The Year of the Book
  • Jeannette Hulick
Cheng, Andrea . The Year of the Book; illus. by Abigail Halpin. Houghton, 2012. 146p. ISBN 978-0-547-68463-5 $15.99 R Gr. 3-5.

The other fourth-graders make a big deal out of Anna's Chinese heritage, but she doesn't even speak or understand much Chinese; in fact, she's sometimes embarrassed by her Chinese-born mother's cultural missteps. Additionally, she's hurt by what she sees as her former friend Laura's abandonment, since Laura has started hanging out with the more socially dominant Allison. Her solution to these worries is to lose herself in a book, and, increasingly, her books become her protection whenever she feels vulnerable. However, Laura eventually realizes that friendship with queen bee Allison is a complicated undertaking, and as she and Anna rekindle their friendship, Anna becomes more willing to set aside her books in order to interact with people. This is a remarkably pithy and nuanced portrait of a fourth-grader and her world, and the streamlined simplicity of Cheng's writing and the brief page count make it accessible. Anna's embarrassment about her mother, couched in disdain, is spot on, for example, as is her mother's resultant frustration with her prickly daughter. The friendship drama is also well played, and many girls will recognize their own relationship struggles in these pages. This would make an excellent choice for a mother-daughter book group, and classrooms and libraries may want to stock multiple copies as well. Halpin's monochromatic illustrations portray the characters with a warm, wide-eyed amiability tempered by crisp lines and a slight angularity that keep the scenes interesting as well as attractive.

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