Joanmarie Lucia Cruz #23

April and the dragon lady was written by Lensey Namioka. It is a novel based on Namioka’s own personal experiences in America. It is centered around the life of a Chinese American girl and what she faces from day to day. When I picked up the book I thought it was going to be a really interesting book but it was just a regular book that dealt with pretty much everyday things. It was good but ordinary.

The girl’s name is April Chen and she deals with a lot at home simply because her grandmother sticks to her Chinese traditions and is hard on April. She also lives with her father and brothers. In China there has always been a favoritism for boys and that is what April’s grandmother sticks to. April is usually home helping her grandmother even though her grandmother’s favorite is Harry and she makes that know to April in many was because of her treatment and words. There was one occasion when April’s grandmother had a family heirloom and instead of giving it to April, she decided that the best thing to do was to save it give it was to give to Harry’s wife... a Chinese wife when he gets married.

April's grandmother also likes to stick to her people and culture. Once Harry brought home a American girl and April’s grandmother mad it known to everyone there that she didn’t like that one bit. This affected April greatly because she had gotten to know an American young boy and they had been dating for a while and he wanted to meet her family and because of the fear of her grandmother doing the same thing, she took a while to introduce him and if you read the book you will soon find out what else a waits April.