From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 3-This tender story about Chinese immigrants to Canada opens in their homeland, as Yenyee's fisherman father gives her a jade pendant carved like a fish. When a typhoon blows up while he's out at sea, she throws the necklace into the water to bargain for his life. Still, he drowns, leaving her family penniless. Reluctantly, the girl accepts a job as caregiver to May-jen, the village merchant's daughter, and accompanies them to the New World, where both girls are terribly homesick. When May-jen nearly drowns in the ocean and Yenyee rescues her, miraculously finding the lost jade pendant, it marks a turning point in the older girl's acceptance of their new home. Deliberately naive color illustrations, composed of strong, simple forms, subtly portray a range of emotions from sorrow and desperation to happiness. Dramatic, wordless spreads advance the narrative. The art conveys a clear sense of place but confuses readers' sense of time by showing the immigrants traveling by sailboat at the turn of the 19th-century to a country where little girls wear short skirts and socks. In a few sentences, Yee's phrasing becomes formal and stilted. Nevertheless, art and text combine into an engaging story with emotions that children will understand.Margaret A. Chang, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, North AdamsCopyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Book Description
This story begins at the turn of the nineteenth century in South China where Yenyee and her family live. One night, her fisherman father vanishes in a ferocious storm at sea. But it is not only her father that she suddenly loses that day. Yenyee feels betrayed by the ocean, a friend she has trusted all her life, and betrayed by her family who then send her across the Pacific Ocean to the New World to be a servant. In this poignant story, two worlds-China and North America-come together. Inspired by the Wing Sang collection at the Vancouver Museum, author Paul Yee takes the reader on a magical voyage of love and forgiveness, of bravery and community.

Card catalog description
When her father is lost at sea during a typhoon and her family no longer has enough to eat, Yenyee travels to Vancouver as a servant, across the ocean which she feels betrayed her.

About the Author
Paul Yee is one of Canada's finest writers for children. He was raised in Vancouver and has worked in the archives at the Vancouver Museum. He is a past winner of the Governor General's Award for Children's Literature (1996) for Ghost Train. He now lives and writes in Toronto. Grace Lin grew up in upstate New York. She attended the Rhode Island School of Design and now lives in Los Angeles. She is the author and illustrator of Dim Sum for Everyone!, which Booklist called "graphically striking...a treat."

ANNOTATION

When her father is lost at sea during a typhoon and her family no longer has enough to eat, Yenyee travels to Vancouver as a servant, across the ocean which she feels betrayed her.

FROM THE CRITICS

Children's Literature - Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz

When Yenyee's fisherman father is lost at sea, her destitute mother decides to send her with a local family to the New World to help care for little May-jen. Both girls are lonely and miss China. One day Yenyee rescues May-jen when she falls into the sea. To her surprise, she finds tangled in May-jen's hair the jade necklace her father had given her, which she had tossed into the sea in the vain hope of bribing it to save her father. Her anger at the ocean abates, and happiness arrives with the promise of her family joining them. Lin paints full and double-page scenes suggesting some Asian art styles with heavy black outlines and solid color areas. The emphasis is on character and esthetic design, although scenes of the ocean are filled with action. The story is a bit unrealistic, but offers a picture of early Chinese immigration. 2002, Crocodile Books/ Interlink Publishing,

School Library Journal

K-Gr 3-This tender story about Chinese immigrants to Canada opens in their homeland, as Yenyee's fisherman father gives her a jade pendant carved like a fish. When a typhoon blows up while he's out at sea, she throws the necklace into the water to bargain for his life. Still, he drowns, leaving her family penniless. Reluctantly, the girl accepts a job as caregiver to May-jen, the village merchant's daughter, and accompanies them to the New World, where both girls are terribly homesick. When May-jen nearly drowns in the ocean and Yenyee rescues her, miraculously finding the lost jade pendant, it marks a turning point in the older girl's acceptance of their new home. Deliberately naive color illustrations, composed of strong, simple forms, subtly portray a range of emotions from sorrow and desperation to happiness. Dramatic, wordless spreads advance the narrative. The art conveys a clear sense of place but confuses readers' sense of time by showing the immigrants traveling by sailboat at the turn of the 19th-century to a country where little girls wear short skirts and socks. In a few sentences, Yee's phrasing becomes formal and stilted. Nevertheless, art and text combine into an engaging story with emotions that children will understand.-Margaret A. Chang, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, North Adams Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews