What Happened this Summer

by Paul Yee

Overview

This new collection of short stories by Governor General's Award winning author Paul Yee confronts the secret lives of Chinese-Canadian teenagers as they battle with their parents over schooling, carreers, sexuality, religion and integration into North American culture. Once again Paul Yee offers a rare glimpse into the conflicted world of Chinese youth, some of whom are locally born, while others have recently immigrated from Hong Kong, Taiwan and China.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781896580883
Publisher:	Tradewind Books
Publication date:	09/01/2006
Pages:	178
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.38(d)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

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 won the Governor General's Literary Award for Children's Literature for Ghost Train. He now lives in Toronto.

Editorial Reviews

"Every teen of Chinese ancestry will identify with the characters and situations here. These stories will definitely serve the Asian-American (or Canadian) students in our high schools, and other students may come away with a better understanding of Asian-American students after reading this. Highly Recommended."

Library Media Connection

These stories offer a varied, thought-provoking picture of a community Yee has long profiled.

Toronto Star

This collection of nine short stories addresses the experience of today's immigrant Chinese youth coming of age in Canada.”

Booklist

Gr 9 Up
These intriguing, loosely linked short stories explore the lives of Chinese-Canadian teenagers as they navigate two worlds, struggling to meet their immigrant parents' expectations and to also live their own lives. They must resist the usual adolescent temptations, or embrace them, with the extra complication of never completely fitting in. One boy works to improve his English while deciding whether to stay in Canada with his father or return to China with his mother. A girl wants to study photography, but her father pressures her to secure a more lucrative career. A boy tries to find a church that will accept his brother, who is gay. A girl sneaks off to have sex with a classmate, though she knows that her strict aunt will be furious if she finds out. Though all of the stories are solidly written, none stand out as the most accomplished, and a few are slightly melodramatic in flavor. Characters sometimes reappear in other parts of the book as their classmates talk or think about their situations, but each of the nine selections also stands alone. While the adults are frequently inflexible and pushy, the young people often come to see that they are also proud, loving, and confused by the rules of their new society. Teens with an interest in the immigrant experience will likely find these stories satisfying.
—Miranda DoyleCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

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