When Kimberly Chang and her mother emigrate from Hong Kong to Brooklyn squalor, she quickly begins a secret double life: exceptional schoolgirl during the day, Chinatown sweatshop worker in the evenings. Disguising the more difficult truths of her life-like the staggering degree of her poverty, the weight of her family's future resting on her shoulders, or her secret love for a factory boy who shares none of her talent or ambition-Kimberly learns to constantly translate not just her language but herself back and forth between the worlds she straddles. Through Kimberly's story, author Jean Kwok, who also emigrated from Hong Kong as a young girl, brings to the page the lives of countless immigrants who are caught between the pressure to succeed in America, their duty to their family, and their own personal desires, exposing a world that we rarely hear about. Written in an indelible voice that dramatizes the tensions of an immigrant girl growing up between two cultures, surrounded by a language and world only half understood, Girl in Translation is an unforgettable and classic American immigrant novel—a moving tale of hardship and triumph, heartbreak and love, and all that gets lost in translation.

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Ah-Kim "Kimberly" Chang emigrated from China with her mother when she was eleven years old. A successful music teacher in Hong Kong, Kimberly's mother struggled to raise her daughter on a single income after her losing her husband to a stroke. She gets an offer from her older sister to come to America where she's assured there will be plenty of opportunity for her.  Kim and her "Ma" arrive in the United States unable to speak English and with virtually no money to start out on. Upon first meeting up with her sister Paula and brother-in-law Bob, "Ma" and daughter Kim are amazed at the sensation of carpet and hot water available on command. Much to their disappointment though, the nice apartment Aunt Paula and Uncle Bob claimed to have  available for them turns out to be a major dump of a place, a rundown apartment full of bugs, in a Brooklyn ghetto. But with pretty much no other options to consider, Ma agrees to move in, taking a job in a Chinatown sweatshop, bringing in just enough money to barely survive. 

Kimberly also obtains a position at the sweatshop while also enrolling in NYC public school. Those early days of school are not easy for her thanks to immature, mean teachers, one in particular who seems to take pleasure in making fun of her accent, lack of English skills and general ignorance of American culture. Not surprisingly, as Kim gets older, she starts to develop a bit of a rebel side, often playing hooky from school just so she can have some peace of mind, even if only for a little bit.

But after a pivotal conversation with her mother one day, Kim realizes she wants more out of life than where her future currently seems to be headed. She re-dedicates herself to work and school after understanding that THAT is her ticket to better circumstances for her and her mother. Kim also navigates emotions surrounding first love / crush and the conflicted feelings that come with the sense of being split between two cultures. 

Elements of the plot were problematic... as in some details or ideas brought forth didn't feel entirely fleshed out. A few too many moments where the reader is just left with scenes full of question marks or hurried conclusions. What IS really appealing about this story is how immersive Kwok makes the environment, squalid though it may be. That's what kept me reading -- the sense that I was placed in the character's miserable circumstances with them. Weird as that sounds, I, as the reader, appreciated that.

Girl In Translation is definitely one to recommend to those who are getting just a little too much entitlement into their whining, those that ask "Are things really THAT bad anymore?" Author Jean Kwok notes that while this is a work of fiction, elements of it are semi-autobiographical, being that she herself emigrated from Hong Kong to Brooklyn as a child and worked in a sweatshop just like Kim and her mother. Give this to kids whining about allowance and have them read the part where Kim calculates the cost of things she needs or wants by how many skirts she'll have to make at work, knowing she's only paid about 1.5 cents per skirt! 

These are the top ten books I'm glad I listened to! I'm sure they would have nice to read too, but the narrators all these all added a little something to them. 

Check out the rest of the Broke and Bookish's TTT Audio Freebie!

Girl In Translation, Jean Kwok, author; Grace Wey, narrator.

Ah-Kim (Kimberly) Chang left China with her mother and came to America when she was 11 years old. Assisted by her ma’s elder sister, Aunt Paula, they moved into an apartment and went to work in a clothing factory, both of which she managed. The apartment was substandard, and the factory operated illegally with underage employees and unsafe conditions. The supposed kindness motivating the elder sister to help them was highly questionable as she subjected them to unfair working conditions and an apartment without heat, that was bug and rodent infested. They were immediately given a false address and told to lie and use it to enroll Kim in a middle school that was not in their district, but that the aunt said was a better school for her to attend. In actuality, the aunt was protecting herself because of the illegal activities of her business dealings. The aunt and uncle operated outside the law, unwittingly aided by the people working for them who were desperate for their jobs and unaware of their legal rights. Kim and her mother were indebted to the elder sister because they had to repay the money that purchased their papers and their air fare, with interest, and now they also had their rent to pay her, as well.  They worked long hours for low wages and were thwarted in their efforts to succeed by the aunt who was jealous for many reasons, jealous of her little sister’s ability to survive and land on her feet in life and jealous of her niece’s success in school, which was greater than her own son’s abilities.

Although I felt certain that school would be difficult for Kimberly and any other immigrant who was unable to speak much English, I found it hard to understand why the school officials and teachers would have been so unkind to her. I was a teacher and although there were some bad apples, overall, teachers were kind to the students, even if some were not trained properly or of the proper mind set to help them. In this book, it felt like there was a general condemnation of the teacher’s behavior toward Ah-Kim. Of course, as in most schools, there were some students who were bullies exercising their muscle to maintain their position of power in the school. However, many of us, regardless of our color, culture, country or religion, have suffered “the slings and arrows” of the troublemakers, in our own schools, as we grew up.

The idea that Kimberly so quickly rose to the top of her class intellectually, and even socially, to some degree, without language skills and in spite of some early failures and peer problems, was admirable, but I found the portrayal of her as such a perfect person, succeeding in every way, a bit disturbing, especially when the “American” children of all stripes were portrayed as selfish, greedy, rude, without ambition, and lacking in intellect. They were involved in disrespectful behavior at home and outside the home, stealing, doing drugs and engaging in underage sexual exploits while their parents looked the other way, preoccupied with their own selfish and greedy needs. They were essentially bringing themselves up without values while Kim was influenced greatly by her mother and her excellent cultural values.

Kim and her mother were portrayed as respectful, honest, obedient, loyal and intelligent, head and shoulders above their American counterparts until Kim was corrupted by them and began also to experiment with drugs, lie, and engage in underage sex which eventually got her into trouble, altering the course of her life, a bit. Still, in spite of all the difficulties she faced, like somewhat of a “supergirl”, she dealt with disasters and turned them into bounties and was still able to obtain a free education at Yale and then go on to become a doctor and surgeon. All of this time, she and her mother were supposed to be living from hand to mouth, barely making ends meet.
I began to feel that I was reading a book that was a bit like a fairy tale, although I felt certain that there was truth in the presentation of the difficulty of being an immigrant in a new country with new ways and a new language. This book painted the Asian culture superior to its American counterpart. Kim, in her “goodness” was able to rise above all adversity, above all the obstacles placed in her path, some put there by herself and some by others. I was left wondering why she alone was singled out for success by the school and not any others, although she was the one that could not communicate well. Somehow they were able to discover, from her test scores, taken in a language she was not fully versed in, that she was of superior intellect and would succeed if given the opportunity. It made me wonder if there were others passed over that might not have had the same success, given the same advantages, not necessarily characters in the book, but rather, in real life.

Still, even when kindness and generosity was shown, there seemed to be resentment toward her which I could not fathom. Her only friend was an unusual looking girl with a talent for action and activism. The book began to feel a bit one-sided in order to paint the immigrant experience in such a way that the immigrant was shown in a very positive light without flaws that mattered, while the Americans were flawed indeed, in character, except for the American school friend, Annette, who was painted as flawed, different and a bit spoiled, depicted as well off although she attended this school in a disadvantaged area and was the only white girl there, although there were two white boys as well. Ah-Kim was the only one of Chinese descent.

The description of Kim seemed subtly designed to malign the other students for their laziness, lack of intellect and general poor behavior, while she was more deserving, worked harder and appreciated all she had, which was, in fact, almost nothing. So, while the story was engaging, it seemed a bit of a fantasy, that seemed true in some parts, but not so in others.
To be more authentic, the author used phonetic expressions and spellings to portray Ah-Kim’s effort to communicate in a world she didn’t know how to navigate. I found it distracting to hear words like Min-hat-ton as opposed to Manhattan and anthn instead of anything, and directions like go downda hall and firsdur left, and expressions like “our new student, eye presume”, and “what’s your exchus?”. I soon became accustomed to the terms like Liberty Goddess, for the Statue of Liberty, head pains for headache or big leg for rudeness, but they, too, felt distracting, especially in the audio. Perhaps a print book is necessary because there were whole sentences, at times, that sounded like gobbledygook to me because of the mispronunciations without context.

I questioned the reality and ability of a child of 11, newly arrived from China, not speaking much English, while living in an apartment that was bug and rodent infested, unheated, sparsely furnished and without any amenities, while attending school not in her own neighborhood, and taking the subway to a clothing factory so she could work long hours alongside her mother, to study and succeed as well as Kimberly did, but kudos to the immigrant that has that kind of drive and success against all odds.

The novel describes the world from the eyes of Kimberly, as she goes from her childhood to her adulthood as a surgeon. Too much of the book was heavily detailed about her experiences in school, work and romance, with too little attention paid to her development as a doctor, later on.

What's great about a story like this, is that it humanizes the people going through the trial of adapting to the US from China. The contrast of the class level and cultural backgrounds of some characters play great together. Kwok does such a great job describing everything around Kimberly Chang, the protagonist, that the reader figures out the intentions of the adults well before Kimberly does, if she ever does. I thought chopping up the English words that were spoken to her and she found confusing was a brilliant way to relay her developing English vocabulary at the same time as relay to the reader what was going on at times in the beginning. Direct translations of slang and insults with the adapted meaning behind them was a great addition. English is my mother's second language and I always thought the differences in the way it was done to be funny, so it was great to find that included. 

There's so much to love here. Many parts of the book are stereotypical in that we expect to hear about when reading immigration stories. Every race and ethnicity that has migrated to the US has those things that are typical to their story. This is typical of the things we hear about Chinese immigrants, when we hear anything at all. 

Grayce Wey is an amazing narrator. Her pronunciations were great. I loved the way the accent started out very thick and softened throughout the story, and that it never completely went away. I also adored the way her reading of the chopped up English played into the story, it was well done. 

I found the end to be fitting, but bittersweet. 

An overall great book, especially if you're doing 500 Great Books by Women's 2016 Year of Reading Women of Color reading challenge! 

This was an interesting and well-written story of a brilliant young woman who emigrated to the US from Hong Kong as a child. It describes her experiences working with her mother in a sweatshop under ridiculously illegal labor practices, adjusting to living in a practically condemned, roach infested building, and struggling to succeed in a school system where her limited English proficiency is interpreted as either stupidity or laziness.

The problems I had with this book are ones that I commonly encounter in YA literature. The antagonists are not nuanced or fleshed out, but are sort of cartoony villains. There is more adolescent love angst than I care to tolerate. The main character is a bit Mary Sue-ish, where she is of near-genius intelligence and all the boys want her but she is unattainable except for her first real true love, but there’s a love triangle and she battles her jealousy and wins in the end but tragedy strikes and she must sacrifice herself for love and OMG!!1!1! I almost threw my phone across the room at the conclusion, where it’s revealed that 

WTF, really?

Audiobook version, borrowed via Overdrive from my local library. Competently read by Grace Wey.