Goodbye, French Fry
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
A sparkling debut novel featuring a Chinese American girl doing her best to stay true to herself in a world that often judges
Some days Ping-Ping feels like she just can’t win. She was born in the US, so it’s frustrating when people are surprised by how American she is, but her Chinese relatives feel she’s not Chinese enough. But the things bugging her the most lately are her classmate Lee Beaumont, who has taken to calling her “French Fry” because of the tofu sticks she eats at lunch, and the possibility that her family will have to relocate to Kenya for her father’s UN job. Of all the things Ping-Ping loves, her home and best friend are at the top of the list, and she’d hate to have to leave them. What’s a girl to do when she can’t be in as much control as she’d like to be? Well, good thing Ping-Ping is a wiz at taekwondo—she’s learning how to kick her frustrations away, and there’s almost nothing she can’t master if she puts her mind to it. Rin-rin Yu has written a warm and funny family story that will have kids rooting for Ping-Ping—a girl who is ready to kick all the assumptions made about her aside!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A Chinese American tween living in Queens, N.Y., grapples with cultural identity in Yu's heartening debut. Ten-year-old Ping-Ping is tired of her grandmother lamenting the fact that she's "so" American. Though Ping-Ping wishes she was named Megan—maybe then annoying white-cued classmate Lee Beaumont would stop calling her "French Fry" due to the tofu sticks she eats at lunch—her immigrant parents encourage her and her younger brother Xy to ignore bullies and embrace their heritage. Even more pressing for Ping-Ping than Lee's harassment, however, is the possibility that the family must relocate to Kenya for Baba's UN job. She'd hate to leave her Italian American best friend Ana behind. But Ping-Ping soon learns that, unlike her ability to kick her frustrations away in taekwondo or her affinity for always playing with perfect poise during piano practice, some things are out of her control. Ping-Ping's bravery and self-awareness, relayed via inviting prose, immediately endears her to the audience. Empathetic portrayals of the protagonist's stern yet supportive family inject warmth into a story that will empower readers to stay true to themselves. Ages 8–12.
