The Jade Necklace
by Paul Yee, illustrated by Grace Lin
This tender story about Chinese immigrants to Canada opens in their
homeland,
as Yenyee's fisherman father gives her a jade pendant carved like a
fish. When
a typhoon blows up while he is out to sea, she throws the necklace into
the
water to bargain for his life. Still, he drowns, leaving her family
penniless.
Reluctantly, the girl accepts a job as caregiver to May-jen, the
village
merchant's daughter, and accompanies them to the New World, where both
girls
are terribly homesick. When May-jen nearly drowns in the ocean and
Yen-yee
rescues her, miraculously finding the lost jade pendant, it marks a
turning
point in the older girl's acceptance of her new home. Deliberately
naive color
illustrations, composed of strong , simple forms, subtly portray a
range of
emotions from sorrow and desperation to happiness. Dramatic, wordless
spreads
advance the narrative. The art conveys a clear sense of place but
confuses
readers' sense of time by showing the immigrants traveling by sailboat
at the
turn of the 19th century to a country where little girls wear short
skirts and
socks. In a few sentences, Yee's phrasing becomes formal and stilted.
Nevertheless, art and text combine into an engaging story with emotions
that
children will understand.
-- School Library Journal September 2002
Reviewed by Tom
Bowden
For ages 3-8
The Jade Necklace is an affecting story
for children about a young girl, Yenyee,
who lives in a Chinese fishing village
during the nineteenth century. Soon after
Yenyee�s father, Ba, gives her a jade
necklace of a fish, representing the sea, he is
killed off shore in a violent storm.
Yenyee�s family is
devastated�emotionally and economically�by her father�s
death, and they are reduced to selling
off their possessions one by one to make
ends meet. One day, a local shop owner,
Chen Ming, tells Yenyee that his family
is emigrating to the United States.
Offering to help Yenyee, at least, Chen Ming
asks if she could come with them to
watch over their young daughter, May-jen.
Yenyee is given permission to go,
hoping that one day she may be reunited with
her family.
Illustrator Grace Lin captures the
loneliness, bravery, fear, and hopefulness that
accompany such tribulations, and Paul
Yee succinctly tells the many events that
befall Yenyee and her ultimate triumph.
While students of all backgrounds�girls
in particular�may appreciate Yenyee�s
story for her stoic perseverance
through many hardships, many immigrant
children, and grandchildren of
immigrants, will probably connect with it even
more strongly, since so many immigrant
families sacrifice much and leave behind
so many loved ones to come to the U.S. - Tom Bowden is Contributing Book
Review Editor to The Education Digest
The Education Digest, May 2002
Yenyee is a small girl who lives in China. As this
picture book begins, she is given a jade fish to wear
around her neck by her father, a fisherman. Then a
typhoon wreaks its devastation, and her father's boat
is lost. Yenyee throws her pendant into the sea,
shouting, "Oh Heaven, if I give you my most precious
possession, please will you give me back my father?"
But the boat does not return. The setting for this
elegantly told, dramatically illustrated tale changes
to Vancouver.
Yenyee has emigrated to Canada. The pangs of
dislocation and loneliness are sharp, but one day
Yenyee saves a life, miraculously recovers her pendant
and sees a way to reunite her family. -- The Globe and Mail August 3, 2002
Inspired by the Yip-Sang collection of artifacts at
the Vancouver Museum, "The Jade Necklace" tells the
story of a young girl in turn-of-the-century China who
loses her father to the sea and struggles to come to
terms with her loss and her new life as a servant in
Canada. A beautifully told story of love, family and
the struggle to find our place. -- BC Parent Magazine, Summer 2002
"The Jade Necklace" is a story about losing a father
and the poverty that ensues. Yenyee emigrates from
China without her family, in order to help build a new
life for all of them. The young girl she cares for
struggles with English, and Yenyee must protect her
from the same forces that took her father's life.-- BC Bookworld, Summer 2002
Ages 3-8 will enjoy this beautiful folk story,
embellished with Grace Lin's warm drawings and
capturing the immigrant experience from
the eyes of a young Chinese girl whose beloved
fisherman father vanishes at sea. Good reading skills
will lend appreciation to this story
of a girl's growth.
-- Midwest Book Review
Family, faith, and the immigrant experience get
equal treatment in Yee's (Tales from Gold Mountain,
1999, etc.)latest offering. "This small gift comes
from me and your friend, the sea," says Yenyee's
fisherman father as he gives her a special necklace-a
jade fish on a red cord-just before his disappearance
in a typhoon. Lin's (Where on Earth Is My Bagel?,
2001, etc.) color-soaked panel, framed in antique
white, shows the girl standing defiantly against the
wind and rain as misty, blue-and-green water swirls
around her feet. "If I give you back my most precious
possession, please will you give me back my father?"
she pleads before she surrenders her necklace to the
sea. With little money and few prospects, Yenyee joins
Chen Ming, the local merchant, on his journey to the
New World, where she will care for his daughter,
May-Jen. "Do your job well," says Yenyee's mother, "and then perhaps our
family will reunite one day." When the child slips
and falls into the ocean on a visit to a seaside
park, Yenyee bravely saves her. Back on land, the two
embrace and May-Jen discovers the long-abandoned jade
necklace in Yenyee's tangled hair. "How can I ever
thank you?" Chen Ming asks when the girls return. "By
bringing my mother and brother here to live with me,"
she answers. In the end, a snapshot-sized illustration
shows Yenyee welcoming her family as they sail to
shore. Yee's narrative takes flight alongside Lin's accomplished
illustration; unfortunately, his truncated closing
falls a bit flat, leaving eager readers wishing for
more. (Picture book. 5-10)-- Kirkus Reviews May 15, 2002
An eloquent blend of historical fiction, Chinese folklore, and
mythology, Paul Yee's powerfully resonant tale is narrated in prose that
marries the formality of the storyteller's voice with the intimacy of a
child's perspective�. Using a rich, darkly hued palette that
mirrors the tale's stormy and sombre mood, Grace Lin's illustrations
range from expressive portraits that poignantly capture the characters'
melancholy and tumultuous emotions to actioned-packed scenes that
evoke the dangerous beauty of the sea in
Van Gogh-like swirls of textured brushstrokes.--
Quill and Quire May 2002
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