Brothers

This book tells a really sweet story about the friendship between two boys who come from two different places. The story starts with Ming, one of the main characters, coming off of a ship from China to America to meet his brother, Shek. Ming and Shek live in China town and Shek tells Ming not to leave China town because it is not safe for Chinese people. Ming becomes pretty lonely and curious so he decides to go beyond China town and discovers a whole new world with the people he sees. He sees children playing together and going to school, everything that he wants to do. While in town Ming meets a boy names Patrick and they become friends. When Ming first tells Shek about leaving China town Shek is not very happy, but eventually both show more families meet and become good friends. Patrick also helps Ming learn English and helps Ming and Shek expand their business. In the book Chinese people and white people were not really supposed to be seen out of their “place.” I think this book would be a really good teaching moment used to teach students about a form of segregation. I think this book also showed how people struggled a lot financially. It talks about how many people came from different places in the world to come to America looking for better opportunities. I also really enjoyed the illustrations in the book. They were very detailed, engaging, and full of colors. Really great read, I would definitely recommend it. show less

Overall, I thought Brothers was a great story. My favorite part about it was the main message. This story’s message was that friendships can be made regardless of cultural differences. In this story, a young boy named Ming travels from China to San Francisco to live with his older brothers where he is told, “Chinese should not go outside Chinatown.” However, Ming disobeys this rule when he meets a young boy and his family outside of Chinatown and befriends them. This story does a great job comparing and contrasting different cultures, with the overall message that it is ok for people to be different, but it is important to learn about and respect the cultures of others and develop friendships with those people, just as Ming did in show more the story. Another part of the story I really enjoyed were the illustrations. The illustrations did a great job depicting the cultural differences between the people in Chinatown and outside of Chinatown, which I think is imperative for helping students understand this story. Finally, I loved how the children’s friendship throughout the story was used to teach the adults about friendship across cultures. I think this aspect of the story could show students that though they are children, they are able to teach adults too, which deepens the importance of why it’s great to learn about and befriend others from different cultures and backgrounds.
I would recommend this story for students in first through fourth grade read-alouds. I think this book could lead to great conversations about culture, friendships, and overall diversity and would be the perfect addition to a multi-cultural classroom. The book itself isn’t hard to comprehend and the pictures are beautiful, so with the right questioning, it could be a very successful diversity lesson intertwined with other literary skills such as compare and contrast, main idea, theme, etc. show less

The Paintings in this book are outstanding, all clear crisp wit a yellow/orange hue. Young Ming arrives in San Francisco after a very long voyage across the sea from China. He lives with his older brother who owns a well-stocked store. Ming is told by his brother and owner of the store Shek that he should not journey past Chinatown.

Ming does not listen to him, and discovers a wonderful friend Patrick. Shek arrived with his older brothers along with the first Chinese railroad workers. The worked hard to set down a railroad yet were not accepted by non Chinese people.

Ming struggles to make a success of his brothers store while his brother is away. Sadly, he struggles. But, Patrick is a wonderful friend and soon he encourages his family show more and other non- Chinese people to purchased wares from the store. Without their help, the store would have closed.

This important step in bringing the two cultures together saves the store and is the beginning of bringing the two cultures in their attempt to learn more about each together.

As the beautiful descriptive text inside the flap of the book notes, this is a rarely told story of the beginning of the two cultures working together to learn about their cultures, and in helping learn about each other.

I will look for the previous book written by this author titled Coolies. Both pivitol, important books very important in showing the importance of understanding the cultures and working toward bringing a more just and understanding of two very different cultures working together to understand each other and forge a like-minding nation. show less

I liked this book for many different reasons. I thought it was extremely educational and historical for young students to learn about. It had a great story line for students to engage with about friendship. Along with a great story, it really helped young students focus on the importance of accepting other people from different countries. I thought that the illustrations were beautiful in describing the characters and really brought out their emotional features. The writing is eloquent and challenging for young students to understand. I believe every young student should read this book in order to enhance their knowledge of other cultures and history. This story really represents the beauty of looking beyond different cultures and show more seeing people for who they are as people through powerful friendships. show less

I picked this book because I liked the diversity of the Chinese and White boys smiling. I feel like the setting of this book was very meaningful to the plot of the book because it gave me clarity. For instance, this book is about a young Chinese boy who travels to his brothers that live in china town.therefore its setting is first on the boat on the way to America,Then in Chinatown and in the street outside of Chinatown. I loved reading this book and seeing it's settings because each picture and setting gave me a different feeling. I think that's the art of having an illustration that goes perfectly along with the setting. For instance, in the beginning Chinatown looked depressing because it was completely empty. However by the end of show more the story it looked very lively and bright. The setting of the book was really interesting to me because I heard about Chinese men coming to the United states to work on railroads and mines in history classes. show less

This historical fiction book is the tale of two brothers who live in china town in San Francisco and must keep their families store in business. The younger brother uses his ability to speak English to attract white costumers to the store and they save the family business. One of my favorite things I loved about the book were the pictures, The pictures really help to display the time setting of the book as well as what people wore and the streets looked like in the 1850's. The pictures also express the emotion of the characters. When the boys are happy it is clear in their expression and when they are upset it is clear they have a worried and concerned look on their faces. The text is also in depth but easy for students to connect to. show more The younger Chinese brother makes friends with a white boy and together they defy the racial prejudice. The white boy also helps support the brothers by telling all of his family and neighbors to support the brothers store in China town. show less

Fantastic illustrations and a wonderful book, despite limited text. Would be wonderful as part of an immigrant study or even gold rush... or as the basic for a comparison writing project.