Bound To Stay Bound

Bulletin for the Center... - 02/01/2011 Sixth grade is going to be the best year of eleven-year-old Lucy Wu’s life. Or at least so it seems, until her parents inform her that Yi Po, her grandmother’s sister from China, will be staying with Lucy’s family until Christmas. Now Lucy has to give up half of her bedroom to an old lady who smells like Vicks VapoRub and gets up at the crack of dawn-and who is not and never will be Po Po, Lucy’s beloved, recently deceased grandmother. To make matters worse, Lucy’s parents are making Lucy attend Chinese school in an effort to get their American-born daughter to better respect her heritage, and they are threatening to forbid her from playing her beloved basketball if her attitude does not improve. Most readers will know where this is going, but the book’s predictability is not necessarily a fault here, rather just another comfortable element of a cozily hopeful exploration of family dynamics and cultural history. Yi Po’s gentle sense of humor and serious cooking skills inevitably win her grandniece over, and Lucy realizes that a connection to Yi Po is an honor, not a rebuke, to her grandmother’s memory. Though the relationship between Lucy and Yi Po is front and center in the story, Shang also capably portrays the family as a whole, presenting a fully realized unit that has both smooth and rough times. Bits of Chinese history and culture as well as allusions to incidents of prejudice and racism are effectively integrated without melodrama, leaving the focus entirely on Lucy’s preteen and familial experience. Her struggle to determine what and who is important to her will most certainly resonate with young readers. KQG - Copyright 2011 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

Booklist - 02/15/2011 Lucy planned on having the best sixth-grade year ever. Her perfect older sister is going to college, so Lucy, about to turn 12, will finally have her own room to decorate with the help of her best friend and fellow basketball teammate, Madison. Instead, she gets Yi Po, her beloved late grandmother’s long-lost sister from China, who is coming to visit for half the school year and will be sharing Lucy’s room. Lucy doesn’t even speak Chinese, something her sister constantly belittles her about: You’re a banana, a Twinkie, white on the inside. In protest, Lucy builds a wall of furniture that separates her side of the room from Yi Po’s and vows she won’t like her great aunt. Shang’s solid debut wonderfully captures the seemingly unbearable unfairness of being a tween balanced between two cultures. Lucy’s struggles and frustrations are realistic, and her experiences take her from stubborn resistance to pride in her Chinese heritage. Readers will find her transformation thought-provoking, funny, and incredibly heartwarming. - Copyright 2011 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 02/01/2011 Gr 4–6—Lucy knows that sixth grade is going to be the best year ever: she finally gets her own room now that her older sister is off to college, and she and her friend Madison are ready to rule the basketball courts. But Lucy's parents put a glitch in those plans when her father returns from a business trip to China with Lucy's great-aunt, who will visit until Christmas. Lucy again has a roommate, and resents this elderly lady who does not speak English and cooks only Chinese food for a family used to pizza and burgers. To make matters worse, her parents insist that she attend Chinese school on Saturday mornings, which means forgoing basketball practice. She is busy with her suburban American life and doesn't feel the need to converse in Chinese or to dwell on Chinese traditions. Slowly, though, she comes to appreciate all that Yi Po has lived through and the quiet ways that her great-aunt shows her love for the family. When Lucy is bullied by a popular girl, she thinks about what her brother told her about Yi Po's life during China's Cultural Revolution and determines that she will act with similar courage and conviction. Lucy is an engaging character, and Shang skillfully weaves in Chinese history and legend as she brings the relationships between Lucy and her family and friends to life. Fans of Grace Lin's Year of the Dog (2006) and Year of the Rat (2008, both Little, Brown) will enjoy meeting this feisty protagonist as she learns to dismantle some walls she has built around herself.—Kim Dare, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA - Copyright 2011 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

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