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Chinese Cinderella

Chinese Cinderella Series, Book 1

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
An ALA Best Book for Young Adults and a Publishers Weekly Best Book, Chinese Cinderella is the story of author Adeline Yen Mah's childhood. Adeline is just three days old when her mother dies. She is blamed for the death and considered bad luck. For years, she tries to please her family, wanting only acceptance and love, but often facing rejection. Finally, after discovering literature, she is given the chance to succeed.
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    • AudioFile Magazine
      Her father doesn't know her birthday. Her stepmother forbids birthday parties, friendships, and pocket money. She is shuffled between boarding schools, and so little does her family make contact that classmates suspect she is an orphan. Felice Yeh aptly chronicles how Adeline overcomes cruelty to be the top student, earning her an escape from a childhood of isolation. Yeh's calm narration allows the brutal facts of Adeline's childhood to fill listeners with admiration for this sweet, smart girl who makes something of herself despite her parents' virtual abandonment. J.M.S. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from August 30, 1999
      Mah revisits the territory she covered in her adult bestseller, Falling Leaves, for this painful and poignant memoir aimed at younger readers. Blamed for the loss of her mother, who died shortly after giving birth to her, Mah is an outcast in her own family. When her father remarries and moves the family to Shanghai to evade the Japanese during WWII, Mah and her siblings are relegated to second-class status by their stepmother. They are given attic rooms in their big Shanghai home, they have nothing to wear but school uniforms, and they subsist on a bare-bones diet while their stepmother's children dine sumptuously. Mah finds escape from this emotionally barren landscape at school, but the academic awards she wins only enrage her jealous siblings and stepmother, and she is eventually torn from her aunt--her one champion--and shipped off to boarding school. That Mah eventually soars above her circumstances is proof of her strength of character. The author recreates moments of cruelty and victory so convincingly that readers will feel almost as if they're in the room with her. She never veers from a child's sensibility; the child in these pages rarely judges the actions of those around her, she's simply bent on surviving. Mah easily weaves details of her family's life alongside the traditions of China (e.g., her grandmother's bound feet) and the changes throughout the war years and subsequent Communist takeover. This memoir is hard to put down. Ages 12-up.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • Lexile® Measure:960
  • Text Difficulty:5-6

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