Bound To Stay Bound

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Booklist - 09/15/2008 The acclaimed author of several interconnected novels about Chinese American life that take place in various historical eras, adds to his Golden Mountain Chronicles cycle with this story of an itinerant basketball team in the late 1930s. Calvin (Flash) Chin and his friend Barney Young leave San Francisco and go on the road with four other Chinese American players. The Great Depression, Japan’s invasion of China, the Phoney War in Europe, a bounty of ethnic prejudices, and the young men’s own personalities are woven together to form an authentic backdrop against which Yep draws scenes of hard-played ball. The games, played against a range of opponents, from poor western farm boys to the Harlem Globetrotters, are fast-paced and often less than clean. Several of the incidents referred to by minor characters here, such as a mining event in Wyoming, have formed the basis for other novels in this cycle. As always, Yep’s history is impeccable; now he’s written an episode with appeal to basketball fans as well. - Copyright 2008 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 10/01/2008 Gr 5 Up-As a person of Chinese ancestry who dares to venture beyond the confines of his own ethnic enclave, Calvin "Flash" Chin, a recent high-school graduate, finds the America of 1939 to be a dangerous place. Persuaded by a couple of fast-talking recruiters to join a barnstorming basketball team composed entirely of Chinese Americans, he leaves the safety of San Francisco's Chinatown to travel with his teammates to small towns throughout the West, playing against the local talent. The stories that Calvin has heard of violence against previous generations of Chinese workers are never far from his mind, and he learns firsthand that unthinking, knee-jerk hostility toward all outsiders is still very much a part of the American landscape. Prejudice both crude and subtle is pervasive, as is the threat of violence. Neither the natural beauty of the land nor the joy of athletic competition ever completely dispels the atmosphere of menace. Calvin, straddling two cultures, draws comfort and solace from his heritage even as he explicitly rejects the spirit of interconnectedness that animates his elders' worldview. Readers with a taste for sports history will enjoy the fact-based account of the hardscrabble existence of Depression-era barnstorming teams. A worthy addition to this important series.-Richard Luzer, Fair Haven Union High School, VT Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information. - Copyright 2008 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

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