Honeysuckle House
Basic Information:
Illustrator: none
Publication Year: May 2004
Publisher: Front Street Books
Book Type: Middle Grade Novel
Grades: 4th to 12th
ISBN-10: 1886910995
ISBN-13: 978-1886910997
About the Book:
Sarah and Tina are fourth graders. The most important thing in the world to Sarah--who is American-born Chinese--is the recent departure of her best friend, Victoria. She misses her terribly. Tina has just recently moved to Cincinnati from Shanghai, and is trying to make sense of a whole new world--pretty much clueless to all the things Sarah is hip to.
The two girls are paired together in school, as if Asian appearance were proof of parallel lives and experience. ("I don't speak Chinese," Sarah keeps having to explain.) It's the daily, common stuff of childhood intrigue that finally manages to connect their stories and forge a friendship. A whole constellation of adult concerns swirl around them--green card worries, assimilation, absent fathers, family tension--but Andrea Cheng remains true to the heart and voice and vision of two ten-year-old girls, in a story which blends tears and games, drama and play.
Author Perspective:
I wrote two stories. One was about my younger daughter and how sad she was when her friend Victoria left. The other was about my older daughter's friend who came from China. My editor suggested combining the stories, and that's how Honeysuckle House came to be written from two points of view. This novel touches on many issues that are close to me because my children have experienced them, including subtle and not so subtle racism.
Awards:
Reviews:
School Library Journal
Grade 3-5–The honeysuckle house (a spot under a large honeysuckle bush) is where fourth-grader Sarah, a Chinese-American girl, plays with her friend Victoria until the girl suddenly moves away. Sarah's story is juxtaposed with her classmate Ting's, a new immigrant from China. Told in first person in alternating chapters, the narratives balance well between large issues (like Ting's parents' employment and legal problems and Victoria's abrupt departure) and more intimate ones (people assume that Sarah can speak Chinese, and Ting has to adjust to all of the new smells in America). With a smoothly drawn and interesting plot, strong characters, and graceful writing, the story has more immediacy than much realistic contemporary fiction. There are some truly memorable scenes, such as when Ting and Sarah explore Victoria's deserted house, and when Ting breaks a vase in the house where her mother cleans. With a strong social conscience behind it as well, this absorbing novel has a lot going for it.
–Lauralyn Persson, Wilmette Public Library, IL Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Booklist
Gr. 4-7. Born in Cincinnati, Sarah, 10, is Chinese American, but she doesn't speak Chinese and doesn't want to. She's furious when the teacher expects her to take care of the new kid, Ting, who has just arrived from Shanghai. Ting, who does know a little English, wishes she were back home, far from people who mock her accent and appearance. Told in the girls' alternating voices, this novel is certainly a friendship story, but it moves beyond the usual immigration-assimilation scenario to show the cultural differences across generations and inside families. Ting's dad, desperate for his green card, hates needing Ting's help ("Just because you know English, do you think you know more than your father?"), and the parents' tensions are always on the edge of each girl's personal conflict. Although there's no neat resolution, the girls do become friends, and Sarah enjoys learning some Chinese, even as she chops off her long, straight black hair. Many readers, and not only new immigrants, will recognize the truth about how hard it is to fit in. Hazel Rochman Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
