The Dragon’s Child: A Story of Angel Island

Laurence Yep with Dr. Kathleen S. Yep
HarperCollins (2011)
ISBN 9780062018151
Reviewed by Alaina Dixon (age 10) for Reader Views (12/11)

In his book “The Dragon’s Child,’’ Laurence Yep, with the help of his niece, Dr. Kathleen S. Yep, does a wonderful job of describing the immigration process from China to America in the eyes of his father, Yep Gim Lew, when he was a child in the 1920s.

Young Gim Lew doesn’t really want to go to America or, as his family calls it, “The Golden Mountain,” but he knows he must do it for the future of his family, because the land in his Chinese village is poor quality for farming, so men have to go elsewhere for work. His father and two older brothers have been in America for some time, to make money for the family.  Gim Lew is just ten-years-old when his father, Yep Lung Gon, arrives in China for a visit with his family and announces that he will be taking Gim Lew back to America with him.

Gim Lew’s father wants to get back to America as soon as he can, to see his older sons, Yuen and Jong, and his friends in America. Gim Lew is not so eager to leave his village and his family that he might never see again.

Getting into America isn’t easy.  More Chinese immigrants are not welcome in 1920s America. To successfully enter America, which Gim Lew knows is terribly important to the father he wants to please but hardly knows, Gim Lew must pass through Angel Island.  At Angel Island, Gim Lew will be put through difficult tests with many questions about his village and family in China, and also his family that is already in America, before he will be allowed to come into America.  To make matters worse, Gim Lew has trouble speaking - he stutters.  He knows he cannot stutter when being tested, or the people giving him the test will think it is because he is nervous, trying to fake being Yep Lung Gon’s son, and he will be sent back to China in disgrace.

This is a great book for children interested in the history of Chinese-American people in the early to middle of the twentieth century. I love how the Yeps make something like their own family’s history into a very lively book from the perspective of a ten-year-old immigrating to America at a difficult time.  (This book is historical fiction, but is based on research the authors conducted on their own family, and they used their family’s names and photos in the book.)  

Reading “The Dragon’s Child” left me eager to read Yep’s next book, “The Dragons of Silk.”  It also inspired me to think about writing some historical fiction based on my own family’s history.

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