Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze

Young Fu is bound for seven years to be an apprentice to Tang the coppersmith, and his new life in the Chinese city Chungking is both exciting and terrifying. Young Fu endures the taunts of his coworkers, and must live by his wits on the streets, where restless soldiers will shoot a man if he does not carry a load for them, and beggars steal from those who pass them by.

Yet for Young Fu, the pleasures of the bustling Chungking of the 1920s far outweigh its dangers. Little by little he learns the ways of the big city and plunges into adventure after adventure as he gains confidence. Who would ever have thought a shy boy from the country would stop a break-in at the copper shop or brave the dreaded Fire Demon to help a foreigner? Young show more Fu's eagerness to help others and his acts of courage earn him many friends, and finally, more good fortune than he ever thought possible. show less

Young Fu is an incredibly likable character, and one roots for his success. I liked following his journey, and his growth is believable and engaging. Innovative-kid-survives-in-tough-situation is sometimes hard to do, and it's refreshing when done well.

The one problem is that there were a lot of slams on women. I normally don't have much of an issue with this, but there was something about the combination of the forward by the author (a woman) and then the little jabs in the third person narrator, not just character actions. So, that’s what sticks out in my mind. (Young Fu's mother is pretty awful, only because she’s stupid and incapable…but what do you expect? She IS a woman. Groan.) I liked the book, but I yearned for a more show more neutral narrator. show less

It took a little while to get into the story, but it turned out to be enjoyable. Content consideration: the mother offers money and incense to her various gods to keep her son safe. But the son repeatedly disregards the traditional taboos and finds out that the "dragons" (gods) aren't as powerful as the older generation fears.

This 1933 Newbery winner is an episodic story of a young Chinese farm boy who is taken to the city after the death of his father. He lives with his mother (who seems a bit neurotic to me as a 21st century American) and is apprenticed to Tang the coppersmith.
Each chapter is essentially a short story revolving around events at Tang's shop, or at home. The tales are infused with traditional Chinese wisdom as Young Fu learns lesson after lesson... most of them the hard way.
I doubt most modern American children would get into this story, but I hope I'm wrong about that.

This 1933 Newbery winner is the story of Young Fu, a Chinese boy from the country who moves to the big city with his mother in the 1920s to begin an apprenticeship with a coppersmith. Unaccustomed to the ways of city life, he has many adventures as he navigates this new world.

On a positive note, it seemed that this book did a good job capturing what life was like amid the soldiers, bandits, and political turmoil of 1920s China. I don't know why I say this, as I know little about this time period, somehow it just felt authentic. Attitudes towards foreigners, inequalities between rich and poor, and the struggles of daily life were addressed. It is important to introduce kids to other cultures, so I appreciate this book for that reason. show more

However, I did not find the book to be very engaging. When I was in grade school, I remember learning about plot structure with that little chart with the rising action, the climax, the falling action, and the denouement. (I had to look up how to spell that last one, I never did learn.) What I have found interesting is that in many of the early Newbery winners, instead of this being the structure of the whole book, it seems like there are a lot of little mini-plot charts instead. In this book, Young Fu encounters a lot of very disastrous situations one after the other, all of which are almost instantly resolved. This structure just doesn't hold my interest at all. I am curious about how plot structure has evolved over the years, as I have noticed a similar structure in other early Newbery winners. I guess it is better than the winners that are a series of incredibly dull vignettes where nothing of significance happens at all. show less

Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze is a Young Adult historic fiction novel, a vivid and well-presented story of China during the dark and dangerous 1920's after the death of empress Tzu Hsi and before the Communist revolution. After his father's death, Young Fu and his mother Fu Be Be move from a small village to the big city of Chungking in central China . He works as an apprentice to Tang the coppersmith. Through Young Fu we come to know the people and culture of China; their life of hardship and poverty; their dedication to their family and honor for their elders; and their great respect for education. The introduction to this book is written by Pearl S. Buck with a forward by Katherine Paterson, both serving as an introduction to young show more adults (and their parents) to the ancient and magnificent culture of China. show less

Lewis did live in China and did know people like the ones she wrote about. I think that is why the book was so surprisingly enjoyable to me - it was authentic; a reader can feel a real empathy for the characters.