title: The Dragon's Child: A Story of Angel Island
author:  Laurence Yep 
description: Grade 3&ndash;6&mdash;Based on conversations with his father and hundreds of pages of family interviews from the archives at Angel Island, Yep's story tells of his father's trip to America. In 1922, 10-year-old Gim Lew Yep is horrified to learn that he is to accompany his father when he returns and must prepare for the interview at Angel Island, an intensive examination about the minute details of his village and family in China. A nervous child, Gim always forgets to use his right hand instead of his left, and, worst of all, he stutters when he's anxious. Furthermore, he is heartsick over leaving his home and family. Told in Gim's very convincing voice, the tale captures the profound loss he feels at leaving his home as well as his determination to make his father proud of him. Though the book is easy to read, it is more complex than Li Keng Wong's <I>Good Fortune: My Journey to Gold Mountain</I> (Peachtree, 2006), another story for the same age group. Yep raises many issues about both Chinese immigration and the immigrant experience in general: Who am I? Where do I belong? How can I balance the duality of my life? Why do people treat others this way? The photograph of Gim Lew in his Western clothes shows a very real sadness and anxiety that are common to anyone leaving family and country behind as they journey to a new life, and Yep captures this beautifully in this brief fictionalized account.&mdash;<I>Barbara Scotto, Children's Literature New England, Brookline, MA</I> <BR>Copyright &copy; Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  ![Cover](../Images/Cover.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Table of Contents
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * [Cover](../Text/cover.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  * [Color Illustrations](../Text/frontmatter1.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  * [Prologue](../Text/prologue.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  * [Chapter I: Even an Archdemon Shouldn’t Beat a Child](../Text/chapter1.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  * [Chapter II: A Dragon I Picked up Got Overly Attached to Me, so I Made Her My Daughter](../Text/chapter2.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  * [Chapter III: Getting Involved with Angelic Knight Business Is a Huge Pain!](../Text/chapter3.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  * [Chapter IV: Beating Down an Evil Monster Is the Job of an Angelic Knight](../Text/chapter4.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  * [Epilogue](../Text/epilogue.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  * [Afterword](../Text/afterword.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  * [Bonus Short Stories](../Text/bonus.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  * [About J-Novel Club](../Text/signup.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  * [Copyright](../Text/copyright.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Landmarks
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * [Color Images](../Text/frontmatter1.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  * [Table of Contents](../Text/toc.xhtml)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Aft