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Loading... The Great Wall of Lucy Wu (2011)by Wendy Wan Long Shang
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Throughout The Great Wall of Lucy Wu by Wendy Wan-Long Shang Lucy is reluctantly getting in touch with her Chinese culture while she endures new living arrangements. She tends to complain a lot throughout the book, which seems totally normal for a sixth grader! I could relate to the fact that she felt the world was out to get her and that everything was going wrong. Lucy couldn’t believe her parents didn’t understand how awful things were for her. I loved that Lucy has an awesome best friend who helps her to see her situation for what it is. Watching her grow and learn to accept the changes in her life was great. I like that nothing happened instantly, but took time. Just like real life. Throughout the book I learned a lot about the Chinese culture and many phrases and terms are sprinkled in each chapter. I even had to get sushi for dinner as soon as I finished reading! Lucy is a typical kid who loves basketball and wants school to go smoothly. The funny things that happen to her make her a believable character. I think kids from fourth grade through eighth grade could appreciate this book and relate to Lucy and her friends. Lucy Wu has built a wall, but will she keep it up, make it bigger, or tear it down? You will have to find out for yourself! Lucy Wu must be one of the truest 6th-grade girls in current middle grade lit. Her concerns, woes, and successes, while they occur in the cultural context of a Chinese-American family, seem to be shared by lots of middle-class, American kids. She is not an orphan, extraordinarily rich or poor, has a family who loves her and has expectations of and for her. She's a solid basketball player without being a junior Olympian. She manages to be a perfectly normal without being perfectly boring. I think that most 5th- and 6th-graders will enjoy the story and appreciate Lucy's travails and triumphs as reflective of their own. I know that, as an adult reader, I appreciated the small cultural insights embedded in Lucy's Chinese classes (A person who wants to have his cake and eat it too is said to "sleep in the east and eat in the west.") along with the snippets of Chinese language. I also found the cover a delightful departure from the current photos of sneaker-clad legs. And, finally, like any 6th-grader, I really enjoyed the delicious descriptions of all of the food. no reviews | add a review
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Eleven-year-old aspiring basketball star and interior designer Lucy Wu is excited about finally having her own bedroom, until she learns that her great-aunt is coming to visit and Lucy will have to share a room with her for several months, shattering her plans for a perfect sixth-grade year. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.7Literature English (North America) American fictionLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Length:320 Pages
Grade Level: 3 - 7