Genre 5 - Historical Fiction
"Read any historical novel by Karen Cushman, Donna Jo Napoli, Patricia Reilly Giff, Jennifer Holm, Kathryn Lasky, Ruth White, Graham Salisbury, Geraldine McCaughrean or Laurence Yep (Be sure it is HISTORICAL, not just a fictional novel)"
Plot Summary
The novel begins by introducing the characters of Henry and Chin and their relationship; Chin's father works for Henry's parents, and so the children spend a good amount of time together. The morning of [insert date here] Henry and Chin's families both survive the giant earthquake and begin to make their way out of their houses and then the city as the fires engulf San Francisco. By the end of their narrative, Henry and Chin both view their own fathers as heroes more than their previous hero Wyatt Earp.Critical Analysis
The novel is presented in consistent third person present tense narrative with terse, immediate phrasing. This portrays a very immediate and pressing situation at first. However, because this pacing continues throughout the novel, it feels repetitive far before the end rather than compelling. The lack of varied sentence length and structure leaves it flat and bland.The historical events portrayed are accurate in their descriptions. An afterword and photos are included at the end to explain similar actual events to the fictionalized versions. Chinese mythological belief in the Earth Dragon corresponds with the movements of the earthquake within the narrative, pulling in philosophical views along with the science of the earth's movements.
Connections
- Learn more about earthquakes.
Earthquakes (reillustrated) (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 2)
by Franklyn M. Branley
Earthquakesby Seymour Simon
- Explore the Asian-American experience in the early 20th century and beyond.
American Born Chinese
by Gene Luen Yang
YELL-Oh Girls! Emerging Voices Explore Culture, Identity, and Growing Up Asian Americanby Vickie Nam
Cooliesby Yin
- Find out more about San Francisco and its history.
This is San Francisco [A Children's Classic]
by Miroslav Sasek
Larry Gets Lost in San Franciscoby Michael Mullin
Life in San Francisco's Chinatown (Picture the Past)by Sally Senzell Isaacs
Awards/Reviews
From School Library Journal:Yep looks at the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 from two points of view. . . Yep's research is exhaustive. He covers all the most significant repercussions of the event, its aftershocks, and days of devastating fires, and peppers the story with interesting true-to-life anecdotes. The format is a little tedious-one chapter visits Henry's affluent neighborhood, the next ventures to Chin's home in Chinatown, and back again-and the "ordinary heroes" theme is presented a bit heavy-handedly. Throughout the text, the boys compare their fathers to Wyatt Earp. But the story as a whole should appeal to reluctant readers. Its "natural disaster" subject is both timely and topical, and Yep weaves snippets of information on plate tectonics and more very neatly around his prose. A solid supplemental choice.-Catherine Threadgill, Charleston County Public Library, SCFrom The Horn Book:
Alternating the story of two fictional families with short segments of factual information, Yep creates a frightening sense of immediacy in this docudrama about San Francisco's destruction in the 1906 earthquake and ensuing firestorm. . . Yep uses the growing friendship between the two boys to underscore pointed discussions of race relations at the time, which works well for the most part. The final scene is a bit forced: Henry and Chin forgo a copy of a once-cherished ""penny dreadful"" because they now see their own parents as the real heroes. Yep follows up with a brisk afterword that details the extent of the earthquake's damage, a bibliography of adult sources, and a section of archival photographs.From Booklist:
Henry and [Chin's] stories are told in alternating chapters with a few interruptions for the insertion of earthquake information. Told in the present tense, the narration provides a you are there sense of immediacy and will appeal to readers who enjoy action-packed survival stories. --Linda Perkins
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