American Born Chinese

by Gene Luen Yang
Lexile:  530
Genre:  Fantasy/Graphic Novel

Jin Wang is the only Chinese American in his school and he wants desperately to fit in.  He is picked on by the other students constantly and then he falls in love with an American girl.  While Jin Wang's story is playing out, the reader learns also about one of the oldest Chinese fables - the Monkey King. the two stories play out in parallel and then converge in a way that weaves the ancient fable into a modern day high school drama about peer pressure, popularity, relationships, and identity.

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