By: Wendy Wan-Long Shang
Rate: Between very good and supreme
Yet another story about a Chinese girl, Wendy Wan-Long Shang’s book The Great Wall of Lucy Wu is truly amazing.
It’s supposed to be the perfect year, the starting of sixth grade for Lucy Wu. Lucy’s grandmother, whom she calls Po Po, moved to China when she was a girl, so Lucy is around third or second generation of immigrants.
Her Chinese isn’t good at all, and she feels out of her place and confused at Chinese class and gatherings. But, although she is around four feet tall, she loves playing basketball. So when her parents announce that on Saturday mornings, instead of going to basketball practice, Lucy has to go to Chinese school instead, she is outraged. This was supposed to be a perfect year.
Not only this, Lucy is still recovering from the death of her Po Po when her parents declare that Po Po’s long-lost sister, Yi Po, is coming over to visit–for three months! And… she’s going to be staying in Lucy’s room. Lucy’s older sister, Regina, just went to college this year, so she was finally supposed to have her room to herself. Now an annoying old woman who Lucy doesn’t know (being long-lost) is going to suddenly take half of her bedroom. It isn’t fair. This was supposed to be a perfect year.
On top of all of this there are some more small problems, like annoying girls, crushes, and how Lucy’s very much non-Chinese best friend Madison seems to like Chinese culture and food more than her. How can Lucy survive this long year?
Overall I think this book has a rather similar style to Front Desk and Three Keys, though in those two books the main characters is rather poor. But for my own reasons I feel like they are very much connected. Lucy is a hardworking girl who struggles with many problems, the biggest one being Yi Po taking her room and moving in for three long months. The Great Wall of Lucy Wu really brought me into the story, Lucy’s feelings and frustrations.
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