The Great Wall of Lucy Wu

The Great Wall of Lucy Wu by Wendy Wan-Long Shang 2011 (ARC)

Scholastic

Rating: 5/5

IQ "For the longest time, China had seemed like a separate place, the hyphenated place in my life. Chinese-American. But now China was close, because that's where Yi Pao was from." pg. 258

Lucy Wu is all set to have the perfect year; she's a sixth grader which means she and her friends will rule the school, her older sister (Regina) is going off to college so she will have her own room and she intends on trying out for the spot of captain of her sixth grade basketball team. Then her father drops the bombshell, her grandmother's sister (Yi Pao) is coming to stay with the family for a few months and she will have to share a room with Lucy. To make matters worse, Talent Chang tells Lucy's mother about a new Chinese school that meets every Saturday morning. At the same time as basketball practice. Lucy's parents force her to go Chinese school, but it doesn't matter anyway because snobby Sloane will bully Lucy out of her spot on the basketball team.

Through blogging I've fallen in love with some middle grade books (8th Grade Superzero, Ninth Ward, One Crazy Summer, to name a few) but while I dearly love all those books I never felt that any of them were so close to my personality. I was either entirely envious of how self confident they were (Lanesha! Ruthie!) or shaking my head in amusement at how far they had to go before they reached maturity. Usually I just settle for saying 'I would totally be his/her friend' but The Great Wall of Lucy Wu is different. Lucy isn't on either extreme and I love her dearly for it. Lucy is generally pretty confident and she's not a social pariah or completely oblivious to the world around her. She's a great basketball player, friendly and occasionally a whiner. Lucy would not have been my friend, she would have been me (or I would have been her?) when I was her age (not that sixth grade was that long ago!). She's not a precocious sixth grade, amazingly intelligent. Instead she has friends, is devoted to a sport and gets good grades (without much pressure from her parents mind you). It was SO refreshing to read a middle grade book where the main character was so..so...normal, in the middle (although in the book she is the youngest), flawed but seriously lovable. Furthermore, it was a bit of relief to find a book where the Chinese parents weren't so strict, they had rules but they weren't trying to stop their kids from having a social life. The family life is realistic and heartwarming. I love reading about connections with older adults/older family members.

And surprise there are mentions of the Chinese Communist Cultural Revolution which I happen to be studying in my comparative government class (this is why we should read more MG/YA in school ;). I didn't feel overwhelmed with facts about the Cultural Revolution, the author reveals bits and pieces of the atrocities committed but the book never loses its cheerful tone even when discussing the horrid Cultural Revolution (which you may recall I also learned about in another great book Girl Overboard). As embarrassing as it is to admit, I could completely relate to Lucy not wanting to deal with her Chinese great-aunt because I've felt the same way about my Spanish-speaking relatives. Both Lucy and I are sure that they will never understand our lives so why bother trying to talk to them? Well we're both wrong and I've never been so happy to have been proven wrong :) More importantly, I think anyone who is a hyphenated American can relate to Lucy whether you're American-Irish, Black American, Chinese American, etc. There are certain moments in our lives where we feel really connected with our culture and our ancestors, whether we get this connection from relatives, visits to our ancestral lands or books, we all feel it at some point.

The Great Wall of Lucy Wu is darn near perfect. Lucy is a girl after my own heart (student athlete, holla!), but I loved that I could see a little bit of myself in every character. Like Kenny (Lucy's older brother) I love history. Like Regina, I can be a little bossy (my sister was convinced Regina was modeled after me but I am NOT THAT bad, although Regina redeems herself so I guess it's all good). There is a particular incident involving Lucy's crush (ah first crush and I was very happy that he was half Chinese but that fact is not made out to be some Big Deal. It is what it is) that would have left me absolutely mortified (SPOILER, highlight to read. Accidentally pushing Harrison down the stairs? If I had pushed my crush down the stairs I would have died, of embarrassment. haha).In addition to the impromptu history lesson, prejudice also plays a role. A certain someone writes derogatory things about Lucy on the bathroom wall having to do with her being Chinese and Lucy has to figure out how to deal with that. It's yet another affirmation that racism still exists and the people who honestly think we live in a post-racial society need to wake up. It's books like this one that will help open people's eyes in the most entertaining of ways, whether by introducing them to a Chinese-American girl who plays basketball and loves to hang out with friends or showing them that kids can be really mean and they know racial slurs so we need to teach them tolerance early. Definitely one of my favorite debuts of the year, one of my favorites of the year, period.

Disclosure: Received from publisher. Thank you so much Scholastic!

PS You MUST read my interview with the author

Elated Over Eleven: Wendy Wan Long-Shang

I'm late with this interview but better late than never applies most excellently to this interview. Welcome to RiC Ms. Shang!

Wendy Wan-Long Shang is the author of The Great Wall of Lucy Wu which was released January 4th (I let my sister borrow my copy before I read it and she won't give it back, she loves that the main character is her age and just like her, plays basketball).

The Great Wall of Lucy Wu is receiving a warm reception and I'm just saying, but, it has a 4 average rating on Goodreads. Impressed yet? Yes or no, doesn't matter, keep reading to learn more about this lawyer/author/hilarious basketball player.

Please give us the scoop on The Great Wall of Lucy Wu

Lucy Wu thinks she's about to have the perfect year - her big sister is moving out of their shared bedroom and her basketball team looks terrific (as does her crush, Harrison). But when her father announces that a long-lost great aunt is coming to visit and that Lucy should start going to Chinese school instead of basketball, Lucy thinks her year is in shreds - but is it? Like the Chinese saying that events that appear to be good luck or bad luck often turn out to be the opposite, Lucy discovers that while her original dream is not going to come true, she can create something even better.

How did you break into publishing?

I started off by taking a class with author Mary Quattlebaum at the Writer's Center in Maryland. Mary is a fantastic teacher, and teaches not just craft but industry basics as well. She mentioned that the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) is a good resource for writers, and I decided to join.

SCBWI lead to some amazing opportunities for me - I found my critique group at a SCBWI regional conference, and I also received one of their Work-in-Progress grants, which was a terrific confidence booster and a nice thing to mention in agent query letters. (True story: I was taking care of 6 kids when I found out about the grant. To this day, they will happily re-enact me jumping up and down and screaming. They think this is what publishing is about!) My book was sold by Lindsay Davis at Writers House to Lisa Sandell at Scholastic. (Lindsay has since left the industry, and I am very fortunate to now have Ken Wright as my agent!)

Frankly speaking, it's unusual to have a book about a young Chinese-American girl who loves interior design AND basketball. Even in the real world, when people think Asians and basketball the only person who comes to mind is Yao Ming. That's part of why I'm even more psyched to read The Great Wall of Lucy Wu. Why did you choose to create a character who is Chinese and loved both of these seemingly (to sheltered Americans anyway) unusual and disconnected things?


Well, Lucy is Chinese-American because I'm Chinese-American; as a first-time novelist, I knew I wanted to stick with what I knew! I also really love the way girls are today: you can be girly AND athletic. I wanted my character to reflect that idea because when I was growing up, there was a bit of the sense that you could only be one or the other. I chose basketball in particular because when I first started writing Lucy, we shared some characteristics, and I wanted to make sure she was her own person. And, if you've ever seen me on the court, I am not a threat to anybody...unless making somebody laugh so hard they're gasping for breath counts as a threat.

HA! I'm sure I'm even worse, the stereotype of being a good basketball player does not apply to me at all ;) But don't discount the gift of being able to make people laugh (well...erm...as long as it's WITH you and not at you). Seriously though, I love that today girls don't feel as though they have to fit in one mold. You can wear pink basketball shoes and still represent on the court.

What book would your book date (obviously it would be a very suitable date for a 6th grader)?

I think it would be really fun to have my book go on a date with Bette Bao Lord's In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson. That book is about a Chinese girl coming to America and discovering what it means to be American, and I think it's a great mirror for my book, which is about a Chinese-American girl finding her Chinese roots.

We used to own that book, my sister read it but I never got a chance too. Now I intend on looking for it so I can read them back-to-back. And they both feature young female main characters who are unafraid to admit they like-no-love sports :)

You went from being an attorney working for juvenile justice (as well as being a court-appointed special advocate) to a writer. Do you think your experience with the law and courtrooms helped you in any way with being an author?

There are a lot of lawyers in the kidlit field. Rebecca Stead, 2010 Newbery Medal winner of When You Reach Me, and Kathy Erskine, the 2010 National Book Award winner of Mockingbird, were both attorneys! I think that going to law school teaches you how to analyze writing and think about how you want to convey your ideas effectively, so in that sense, legal experience is very helpful.

I never knew there were so many lawyers in the kidlit field, I don't know where I was hiding because I'm sure I would have read somewhere that Rebecca Stead is a lawyer. I do know that Francisco Stork is a lawyer as well, but that's all I've got off the top of my head. I admit, I have a hard-time wrapping my head around lawyers writing for kids (I've been around too many serious ones!) but especially if they work with kids, it makes sense. And all of the lawyers we've mentioned have won at least one award (Francisco Stork won the Schneider Family book award for Marcelo in the Real World)!

What are some of your current favorite MG reads? What fellow '11 debuts are you looking forward to?

I adored The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger - it was funny and sweet and a little mysterious. As for debuts, I can't wait to read Winifred Conkling's Sylvia and Aki, and The Mostly True Story of Jack by Kelly Barnhill. Sylvia and Aki is set in 1940's California; Sylvia is Hispanic and must attend a "Mexican" school because of segregation laws; Aki is Japanese and her family is being sent to an internment camp. It is based on a true story. As for The Mostly True Story of Jack, I've had the privilege of seeing the first few chapters, and we're in for something really special. It's a magical story about friendship, loss and sacrifice.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! Why am I just now hearing about Sylvia and Aki? It sounds WONDERFUL. So much for not adding more than 500 books to my TBR *heads off to Goodreads* The Mostly True Story of Jack sounds quite mysterious and The Strange Case of Origami Yoda sounds HILARIOUS and I could certainly use a laugh-out-loud read...

What two PoC characters would you love to hang out?

I think it would be really fun to hang out with Alvin Ho of the eponymous books and Fern from One Crazy Summer. They're both such sharp, observant characters - I know I'd come away seeing the world in a completely different way.

What is one issue you have with MG books? What is something you love about MG?

One of the hardest things about writing MG is trying to avoid the typical tropes - orphans, red-headed best friends, boarding schools - or at least do something original with them! I love MG readers - they are the most appreciative readers in the world. I got a pop-up card from one reader, depicting a scene from LUCY, and it just melted me. And I thought, I bet even Jhumpa Lahiri (one of my favorite writers of adult fiction and a Pulitzer Prize winner) never got a handmade pop-up card!

Where can readers find out more about you and your books?

They can visit me at wendyshang.com, and I am also a contributor at From the Mixed-Up Files, a multi-author middle grade blog.

Thank you so much for stopping by Wendy! Now score some points and buy The Great Wall of Lucy Wu. I'm thinking it's at least as spectacular as a half court shot? haha ok I'm done.