Jean Kwok

Emigrating with her mother from Hong Kong to Brooklyn, Kimberly Chang begins a secret double life as an exceptional schoolgirl during the day and sweatshop worker at night, an existence also marked by a first crush and the pressure to save her family from poverty. A first novel.

Girl in Translation

clara

I never want to love someone like that,not even him,so much that there would be no room left for myself,so much that I wouldn't be able to survive if he left me.

Emigrating with her mother from Hong Kong to Brooklyn, Kimberly begins a double life as a schoolgirl by day and sweatshop worker at night, an existence also marked by her first crush and the pressure to save her family from poverty.

Raven K

*♾/5. I..love this book so freaking much. Definitely a comfort/favorite book.

claire law

I liked 95% of the book but the end made me mad. That was out of character for the mc. Also I didn’t get closure on Annette?

Sean Valencia Monte

Reread Update - One year later, I am now Team Curt. Matt is honestly a walking red flag. I hate the accidental pregnancy trope so much. Still a good book. 

This novel was the only book I actually enjoyed reading at school. From the first chapter to the last, I could not put this book down because it is THAT GOOD! The way it showcases the hardships of an immigrant girl had me exploring SO many emotions as I experienced some of them when we moved to the United States at the age of 7. This book was so realistic on so many levels and the LOVE TRIANGLE... The two boys don't deserve her. I love her success story and the way this is written made me thought it was based on a true story. The ending- I was shocked. I 100% recommend reading this book.

Kim Tyo-Dickerson

On the release date of Jean's new novel, Searching for Sylvie Lee, I wanted to repost my review of her first novel Girl in Translation:

If you haven’t read Jean’s book yet, you are in for a treat:

“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—the staggering degree of her poverty, the weight of her family’s future resting on her shoulders, 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 (Girl in Translation).”

Kimberly’s story is a quintessentially American one that draws in echoes of Dickens’ gritty factory scenes, Cinderella-cruel characters, and even the sweet sounds of a violin being played to a little girl in the dark that immediately reminded me of the Little House on the Prairie books. It is Kimberly and her mom against the world, and Jean’s amazing ability to describe Kimberly’s English to Chinese mistranslations is one of the real strengths of her narrative. It helps the reader share Kimberly’s confusion, her frustrations and, ultimately, her triumphs, rooting for her all the way.

To read my full review, please check out my blog post at The Uncommon Reader.

Jelke Lenaerts

This was a wonderfull coming-of-age story and I would highly recommend it. I learned so much about the Chinese culture. I did have some problems with it but those are all related to my personal preference and nothing with the book. Does that make sense? So yeah, I would highly recommend it !

full review: https://jelkelenaerts.blogspot.be/201...

Leelynn Brady

It’s been almost a week or so since I read this novel, and yet I’ve still been thinking about it since I put it down. I read it so fast, I mean it was less than 300 pages so I knew it would be quick, but I was still just so emotionally invested in this novel because of how much I could just feel for Kimberly and her mother. It’s honestly so crazy how many times I end up reading about a character with Asian heritage – whether it’s Japanese, Korean, Chinese, etc – and I don’t even flinch at what’s going on.

Read my FULL review on my blog Sometimes Leelynn Reads

window

Girl in Translation was a very compelling story of Kim, a young Chinese immigrant, and her mother. After her father dies, 11 year-old Kim and her mother come to New York to join her mother‚Äôs sister, Aunt Paula. Aunt Paula puts the two to work in her sweatshop clothing factory and illegally houses them in a condemned building. Their living conditions are deplorable. The apartment is filthy, infested with roaches and rodents, and has no heat. By the time they pay Aunt Paula rent and the debts related to their immigration expenses, Kim and her mother have almost nothing left. Kim is forced to help her mother in the factory after school in order to meet her mother‚Äôs quota. They are paid 1.5 cents per finished skirt, which amounts to about $2.00 per hour. When Kim becomes too proficient with her tasks, Aunt Paula reduces the piece rate to a penny. They come to calculate the cost of everything in the currency of skirts. Their poverty is so severe, it‚Äôs almost tangible and it affects every aspect of their lives. 

The story chronicles Kim‚Äôs school years from 6th grade through graduation and beyond. Kim was a top-performing student in Hong Kong but here, she is just another immigrant who can‚Äôt speak English. Her mother was a talented musician who gave music lessons in Hong Kong. Here, she barely has enough time and energy to meet her factory quota, much less make music. They struggle with their dependence on Aunt Paula, who bears them nothing but animosity. Kim is determined to use her talent for learning and schoolwork to pull herself and her mother out of poverty and away from Aunt Paula‚Äôs malice. 

This was a great read, full of well-developed characters who came alive on the page. Their suffering comes through without self-pity, making it all the poignant. Kim‚Äôs will and determination to improve her life, despite the many obstacles she faces, is inspiring, particularly when contrasted with other students who take their advantages for granted. My only criticism is that the ending seemed a little compacted and rushed.

Mahasin S Ameen

Kimberly Chang is only eleven when she and her mother pack up everything they own and move from Hong Kong to the United States of America. She is excited to be living in New York city, home of the Liberty Goddess (the statue of liberty) and so many skyscrapers but the reality she faces is far from what she expected. Initially, Kimberly and her mother were expecting to live with her mother’s older sister, Aunt Paula. Working for Paula helping take care of her son and teaching him music and Chinese.

This job ends before it even begins and Kimberly and her mother find themselves living in a run-down apartment without heat and infested with roaches, mice and rats. For work Kimberly and her mother are forced to work at her Aunt Paula’s “factory” being paid by the piece for “finishing” items. The “factory” is a sweatshop, Kimberly and several other workers that are under the age of eighteen are forced to hide on a day when inspectors come. Kimberly vows to work very hard to get from under the horrible conditions, using the only talent she has – a talent for school -.

Kimberly works very hard to excel in her classes and works hard to adjust and make friends in her urban elementary school and later, her almost all white college preparatory school, all while trying to balance the horrible working conditions and her shameful living conditions.

Throughout all of this Kimberly manages to make close friends like Annette, a white girl from a middle class family who attends school with her, and Matt, a fellow Chinese immigrant and fellow child worker at the sweatshop.

Kwok does an excellent job of capturing the way Kimberly has to learn how to translate the way her mother and her aunt speak to each other. They use metaphors and what westerners would consider “underhanded” or “tap dancing around the issue” in matters such as trying to get Aunt Paula to move them to a better apartment. Kimberly has to learn how to translate what they say to each other as well as translating from English to Chinese and from Chinese to English.

Michael Hessling

I'm such a sucker for reading about smart people.

New York Times bestseller Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok is a powerful story about a Chinese immigrant family in Brooklyn.Kimberley Chang and her mother move from Hong Kong to New York. A new life awaits them - making a new home in a new country. But all they can afford is a verminous, broken-windowed Brooklyn apartment. The only heating is an unreliable oven. They are deep in debt.And neither one speaks one word of English.Yet there is hope. Eleven-year-old Kim goes to school. And though cut off by an alien language and culture and forced by poverty to work nights in a sweatshop - she finds the classroom challenges liberating. In books and learning she'll be saved. But can Kim successfully turn to lost girl from Hong Kong into a happy American woman? And should she?Jean Kwok's powerful and moving tale of hardship and triumph, of heartbreak and love, speaks of all that gets lost in translation.'A sensitively handled rites-of-passage account...has the unmistakable ring of authenticity' Metro'A truly amazing story that'll leave you full of admiration and affection for the characters' Easy Living'A classic and moving immigration story' RedJean Kwok emigrated from Hong Kong to Brooklyn as a child; her first novel Girl in Translation is based loosely on her own experience as a Chinese immigrant in America. With Girl in Translation Jean Kwok has won the American Library Association Alex Award, an Orange New Writers title and international critical acclaim.

Girl in Translation

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