American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

This book is a graphic novel, and I gave it a rating of three out of five.There are actually three plots in the book, but they all come together in the end. The first plot involves a monkey king who wants to be treated as a god. He's rejected because he's a monkey, and he does all he can to transform himself into something greater. The second plot describes a young boy of Chinese decent who strives to be accepted by his peers. He discovers that he likes a girl and is embarrassed to share his feelings because of his heritage. The third plot centers around an Ameican boy who has moved to a new school each year. Each spring, his Chinese cousin comes to visit his schools and behaves obnoxiously. As a result, the American boy must move after the teasing he takes from his classmates. Again, all of the plots unite in the end to form an interesting conclusion.

I'm not a huge graphic novel fan, so I'm reluctant to give them good scores. This books offers a valuable lesson to people to accept yourselves. Be proud of your heritage.

Lexile level from lexile.com is 530.