Homesick: My Own Story

At the age of 11, Jean has never set foot on American soil, but she dreams of the day when she will get to experience typical American childhood events: feeding chickens at her grandmother's farm, roller-skating, saying the Pledge of Allegiance in school. On the other hand, she loves her life in

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China, too. This fictionalized memoir is a lovely description of a young girl who is, in many ways, torn between two countries. Fritz obviously remembers vividly what it is to be a child -- young Jean struggles with her parents' expectations that she be a "good" girl. "Sometimes, I don't even try [to be good]," she admits in a letter to her grandmother.

When a friend (Whisper1) passed this book along to me, I thought that I had never read it -- but as I read, I found that certain mental images echoed back from my childhood: the junks on the Yangtze, the chef with his long fingernails and his elaborate butter pagodas, the little boy who calls Jean a "foreign devil" and with whom she shares an orange. I must have read this at some point in the deep and dusty past. While the descriptions of Fritz's China are, by now, somewhat dated, her descriptions of her childhood feelings are timeless.

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This autobiographical story takes place in the mid-1920's. Fritz was born to American parents in China and lived there until she was twelve.

The title of this book really goes well with story. It talks about Jean growing up in China during a rough time in China's history. The trials that she faced as being as being an American can be some of the someones people may face in China today. It was indeed a book I think someone can relate to

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and learn from.

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Homesick is mostly a historical story. Jean, an American girl was born and living in China. She misses and dreams of being in America. Not the most enjoyable story, but it was informative with great information. It keeps diversity included in the story, war, and sadness.

This book is about Jean Fritz and her journey to China. She was incredibly homesick and missed America. There were many struggles she faced living in China because newcomers were not easily accepted into their world. Interesting book.

Given the controversy in the last few years over what constitutes a memoir, it was interesting that Jean Fritz qualified the nature of her memoir in the foreward of this book. She said given that she has recreated dialogue from old memories that she must call the book fiction even though it is her

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past. Setting was a definite character is this book. Fritz's details of the places she lived in are rich and colorful. Setting advances the plot--in fact getting on a boat and going to America is little Jean Fritz's goal. Additionally, place changes Jean. After her baby sister dies, the magic of the mountain community where they were living disappears. It becomes too windy and the spring flowers die. Additionally, the historical events in China are described in great detail but from the eyes of a young girl. These events propel the Fritz family out of China and back to the U.S. Fritz used the zig-zag method of inserting back story and it was subtle and effective. For example, in the first chapter Jean returns from school and calls out that she is home. No one answers. "Then I remembered that it was Tuesday, the day my mother taught an English class at the U.M.C.A. where my father was the director." That is the end of this brief insertion of explanation of background. The reader is drawn immediately back into the present as Jean describes the high ceiling in the hallway.

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In the foreword, the author discusses the problem of writing about one's childhood. So while she categorizes her book as fiction, it is as true as she can make it.

Jean was an American born and raised in China. Her ran a Y.M.C.A. in Hankow. She loved much about China, but always dreamed of the time when they would move back to the United States and she could be fully American. The book is a fictionalized biography, as she explains in a forward.
She has good

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and bad times in China. There are Chinese she loves, and those she loathes. After reaching her Pennsylvania home towards the end of the book, she has good and bad times there as well.

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Touching recollection of the author's childhood in China, including her thoughts and observations of the culture. This one deserved its Newbery honor award, recommended.

Fritz's novelized autobiography of her childhood in China in the 1920s. Fairly interesting, and the glimpse at what was going on in China at the time through a child's eyes is well done. This Newbery Honor Book was written in the early 1980's, but I think it would still appeal to middle grade

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kiddos today.

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