American Born Chinese

By Gene Luen Yang

In this graphic novel, the Monkey King studies the four major heavenly disciplines to achieve immortality; a young Chinese boy, Jin Wang, starts at a new school and wants to fit in; Chin Kee, Chinese cousin of a boy named Danny, makes it his personal responsibility to humiliate Danny as much as possible. These three seemingly unrelated stories converge to deliver a really important message in a very entertaining way.

I loved the way the stories were brought together in this book. I found the characters very interesting and funny and found myself laughing out loud at several parts of the book. The comic book/super hero component in the Monkey King’s story worked well with the more realistic story of Jin Wang and the outlandish story of Chin Kee. When the stories converge, as I knew they would, it’s a little contrived but still funny with a powerful punch.