Post the summary here.
I am looking forward to reading your work. Saturday is the Empowering Women of Color Conference at UC Berkeley in the Pauley Ballroom. There is a conversation with Angela Davis and another activist, Grace Lee Bog, Friday evening, March 2. The lecture is free, the conference nominal. For information visit https://ewocc.wordpress.com/workshops/ and for the Friday lecture https://ewocc.wordpress.com/grace-lee-boggs-and-angela-davis/
I am looking forward to reading your work. Saturday is the Empowering Women of Color Conference at UC Berkeley in the Pauley Ballroom. There is a conversation with Angela Davis and another activist, Grace Lee Bog, Friday evening, March 2. The lecture is free, the conference nominal. For information visit https://ewocc.wordpress.com/workshops/ and for the Friday lecture https://ewocc.wordpress.com/grace-lee-boggs-and-angela-davis/
8 comments:
Stephanie Kallens
English 1B
Professor Sabir
5 March 2012
Spring 2012
Nicole Tsong of The Seattle Times gives a raving review of Jean Kwok's Girl in Translation. In her review, she describes Girl's plot, but not allowing the audience grasp the concept of the novel completely. Tsong gives enough detail for the audience to be captivated, such as describing the young narrator's speech as "halty". This use of language gives an image to the readers and allows the reader to briefly visualize the story. Tsong seems to admire Kwok for her visual language describing a Chinese immigrant who must deal with poverty, language, and hardship in order to have a successful American life.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thearts/2011728712_br02girl.html?prmid=head_main
Brittney Brunner
English 1B
Prof. Sabir
5 March 2012
Jenni Murray presents an outstanding interview with Jean Kwok, whom reads certain passages from her book, Girl in Translation, and explains that the book is a mirror of her life. She explains that Kimberly, the main character of her award winning book, is actually 11 but Jean Kwok was 5 years old when she worked in the sweat shop.
Hi Stephanie:
You give some detail, but more would be better. I ask for 250 words. I do not know what the book is about at all reading this summary.
The MLA on the works cited is incorrect. Please correct and resubmit.
Brittany:
Not enough detail to be able to locate the writer and her work in the deep blue sea.
Rewrite. Include a works cited section of the response.
Billy Russell
English 1B
professor Sabir
6 March 2012
Professional critic Megan Crane generally praises the novel, Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok. She says that Kimberley is a likeable main character, and that she could really relate to a lot of her problems and sympathize with her. In fact, Crane even says in her review that, "her [Kimberley's] success felt like my success." For this reason it was easy for her to get excited about the book.
She likens Kimberley to a Chinese girl she was friends with in grade school, and she sees herself as Annette. She explains how enlightening and interesting it is to see the world through the eyes of the Chinese girl Crane once new in grade school. Crane even wonders if the girl she knew was going through a situation similar to Kim's; an idea that was very eye opening to her. Mostly though, the review focuses on Kwok's ability to form such a good relatable main character.
The review goes into much detail about how easy it is to relate to Kimberley. The author of the review raves about how she could feel Kimberley's pain and other emotions. There are many times when the novel caused her to cry, burst out laughing or even feel scared. She especially enjoyed the happy ending, describing it as though she, the reader, had been though an "epic saga."
The review ends by saying that Kwok's novel was both extremely entertaining and educational. It is stated that Kimberley is truly an unforgettable character, and that the book was a truly eye opening experience.
Crane, Megan. "Book Review: A Girl In Translation by Jean Kwok." Write Meg! 15 July 2011. Web. 06 Mar. 2012. http://writemeg.com/2011/07/15/book-review-girl-in-translation-by-jean-kwok/.
Sherrlyne Apostol
Professor Sabir
English 1B
6 February 2012
A book review by Swapna Krishna gives an outstanding overview of Jean Kwok’s novel “Girl in Translation”. She describes the book to be, “an expertly written, pitch-perfect coming of age novel.” She begins by giving a brief description of the story based on the struggle of a mother and daughter coming to a new country trying to overcome social, cultural and language barriers in order to succeed. Krishna than goes into depth and describes the main characters Kimberly and her mother.
She emphasizes the growth of the main character Kimberly and explains the beauty of the novel and being able to watch Kimberly grow as a character. She describes the significant relationship between Kimberly and her mother. She talks a great depth about Kimberly’s character and mentions that her drive and determination is very admiral. Krishna makes a connection between the struggles Kimberly faces as a Chinese immigrant and a regular teenager just trying to succeed in America. Krishna goes on and compares the lives of Kimberly and her mother and people nowadays. She says, “it brings in to sharp focus how privileged so many of us are.”
Krishna continues by emphasizing Kwok’s brilliance in writing the novel. She describes it as genius and inspirational. Krishna uses the word inspirational in almost every paragraph in her review; she definitely praises Kwok’s strength for storytelling. She also adds that Girls in Translation is expertly written and well crafted. She goes on by saying that the book is captivating and that readers will find themselves “emotionally invested in Kimberly’s future”.
Book Review: Girl in Translation - Jean Kwok
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Title: Girl in Translation _Author: Jean Kwok _ISBN: 9781594485152 _Pages: 320 _Release Date: April 29, 2010 _Publisher: Riverhead _Genre: Literary Fiction, Cultural Fiction _Source: Publisher _Rating: 4.5 out of 5
By: Swapna Krishna
http://www.skrishnasbooks.com/2011/11/book-review-girl-in-translation-jean.html
Mariam Asana
English 1B
Professor Sabir
5 March 2012
Girl in Translation Summary
When Kimberly Chang and her mother emigrate from Hong Kong to Brooklyn squalor, she quickly begins a secret double life: exceptional schoolgirl during the day, Chinatown sweatshop worker in the evenings. Disguising the more difficult truths of her life-like the staggering degree of her poverty, the weight of her family's future resting on her shoulders, or her secret love for a factory boy who shares none of her talent or ambition - Kimberly learns to constantly translate not just her language but herself back and forth between the worlds she straddles.
Through Kimberly's story, author Jean Kwok, who also emigrated from Hong Kong as a young girl, brings to the page the lives of countless immigrants who are caught between the pressure to succeed in America, their duty to their family, and their own personal desires, exposing a world that we rarely hear about. Written in an indelible voice that dramatizes the tensions of an immigrant girl growing up between two cultures, surrounded by a language and world only half understood, Girl in Translation is an unforgettable and classic novel of an American immigrant-a moving tale of hardship and triumph, heartbreak and love, and all that gets lost in translation
Mariam Assana
English 1B
Professor Sabir
5 March 2012
An iteration of a quintessential American myth--immigrants come to America and experience economic exploitation and the seamy side of urban life, but education and pluck ultimately lead to success.
Twelve-year-old Kimberly Chang and her mother emigrate from Hong Kong and feel lucky to get out before the transfer to the Chinese. Because Mrs. Chang's older sister owns a garment factory in Brooklyn, she offers Kimberly's mother--and even Kimberly--a "good job" bagging skirts as well as a place to live in a nearby apartment. Of course, both of these "gifts" turn out to be exploitative, for to make ends meet Mrs. Chang winds up working 12-hour--plus days in the factory. Kimberly joins her after school hours in this hot and exhausting labor, and the apartment is teeming with roaches. In addition, the start to Kimberly's sixth-grade year is far from prepossessing, for she's shy and speaks almost no English, but she turns out to be a whiz at math and science. The following year she earns a scholarship to a prestigious private school. Her academic gifts are so far beyond those of her fellow students that eventually she's given a special oral exam to make sure she's not cheating. (She's not.) Playing out against the background of Kimberly's fairly predictable school success (she winds up going to Yale on full scholarship and then to Harvard medical school) are the stages of her development, which include interactions with Matt, her hunky Chinese-American boyfriend, who works at the factory, drops out of school and wants to provide for her; Curt, her hunky Anglo boyfriend, who's dumb but sweet; and Annette, her loyal friend from the time they're in sixth grade. Throughout the stress of adolescence, Kimberly must also negotiate the tension between her mother's embarrassing old-world ways and the allurement of American culture.
A straightforward and pleasant, if somewhat predictable narrative, marred in part by an ending that too blatantly tugs at the heartstrings.
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