Nothing But the Truth (And a Few White Lies)
I'd been hearing rave reviews about Nothing But the Truth (And a Few White Lies) for quite a while, but I resisted reading it. I was expecting it to be just another book about an Asian-American kid trying to fit into American Society (The Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson keeps coming to mind). But then, it was nominated for the cybils, and I was more-or-less forced to read it -- but it turned out to be quite good.
Patty Ho is a high school sophomore who feels like she doesn't fit in anywhere -- at home, she is too American, and at school, too Asian. Her mother, hoping to encourage her daughter to find a nice Taiwanese boy, sends her to math camp. There, she finds that she is suddenly part of the majority, and she begins to realize that it is okay to be herself -- that it is okay to be good at math, that being half-Asian is actually the best of two worlds.
The details in the novel are spot-on. I especially liked the way Patty's mother picked Chinese restaurants by looking in the front windows to see how many Asian people are eating there. (For the record, this method does actually work).
2 comments:
You know, I really didn't want to read this one either, so I'm really glad that the Cybils challenged me on my resistance, 'cause I really liked it too!
Yeah, I've been surpised by quite a few of these books (in a good way, I mean).
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