Lin, Grace. 2006. The Year of the Dog. New York: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 0316060003
The Characters
The main characters in The Year of the Dog are Grace/Pacy, her sisters, Lissy and Ki-Ki, her parents, and her friend Melody. Other characters are other friends, family and schoolmates.
The Plot
The year of the dog is the year of good luck. Pacy, also known by her American name, Grace, knows that this is her year! She's going to discover what she's going to be when she grows up, she's going to make a best friend and she's going to find out who she really is.
The main characters in The Year of the Dog are Grace/Pacy, her sisters, Lissy and Ki-Ki, her parents, and her friend Melody. Other characters are other friends, family and schoolmates.
The Plot
The year of the dog is the year of good luck. Pacy, also known by her American name, Grace, knows that this is her year! She's going to discover what she's going to be when she grows up, she's going to make a best friend and she's going to find out who she really is.
The Setting
New Hampton, New York
The Theme
discovering oneself
The Style
The Year of the Dog is written from Grace's point of view. She thinks, acts and speaks like a little girl in elementary school - silly, kind of boy crazy and curious.
The Analysis
I enjoyed The Year of the Dog. The little drawings throughout the text are cute and remind me of little doodles that I would draw. Grace is a bright little girl trying to discover just who she is and she does a good job. She decided that she wanted to be an author and illustrator when she was little and, sure enough, she is! Since this is pretty much an autobiography of the author, we know just what she grew up to be!
The Cultural Markers
Illustrations: The book cover is red and gold, traditional Chinese New Year colors. The little doodles throughout show Grace and her family having black hair and eyes. There are also several little doodles of different types of Chinese/Taiwanese food, like fried dumplings on page 6, rice porridge on page 14, egg foo young on page 29, cooked duck on page 38 and many others. There are also little drawings that show Chinese writing and other traditional Chinese things, like rice cookers, vegetable seeds and even Chinese grandmothers!
New Hampton, New York
The Theme
discovering oneself
The Style
The Year of the Dog is written from Grace's point of view. She thinks, acts and speaks like a little girl in elementary school - silly, kind of boy crazy and curious.
The Analysis
I enjoyed The Year of the Dog. The little drawings throughout the text are cute and remind me of little doodles that I would draw. Grace is a bright little girl trying to discover just who she is and she does a good job. She decided that she wanted to be an author and illustrator when she was little and, sure enough, she is! Since this is pretty much an autobiography of the author, we know just what she grew up to be!
The Cultural Markers
Illustrations: The book cover is red and gold, traditional Chinese New Year colors. The little doodles throughout show Grace and her family having black hair and eyes. There are also several little doodles of different types of Chinese/Taiwanese food, like fried dumplings on page 6, rice porridge on page 14, egg foo young on page 29, cooked duck on page 38 and many others. There are also little drawings that show Chinese writing and other traditional Chinese things, like rice cookers, vegetable seeds and even Chinese grandmothers!
Text: There are many cultural markers in this book. One little girl describes Grace as a Twinkie because she is a Taiwanese-American... "yellow on the outside but white on the inside" (101). There are lots of descriptions of Chinese New Year traditions, new baby traditions and what Taiwanese-Americans do on Thanksgiving and Christmas when they live in the United States. Grace's parents like to tell stories from when they were little, and these stories take place in Taiwan. Grace's mother told about having to have hair shorter than her ears (130) and clothes pressed flat like cardboard in school (15-16) and about the time she was embarrassed that her grandmother who bound her feet walked her to school one day (78-79).
The Review
Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2005 (Vol. 73, No. 24))
Being Taiwanese-American is confusing, and being the only Asian kid in your elementary school-except for your older sister-is not always comfortable. Pacy has high hopes for the Year of the Dog, which, she learns, is a year for finding friends and finding yourself. The friend comes first: a new girl, Melody, whose family is also Taiwanese-American. Over the course of the year, Pacy eats at Melody's house, where the food is familiar but also very different, celebrates her cousin's Red Egg day, writes a story for a national contest, visits Chinatown in New York City and wins a prize. Not only does she feel rich, she knows what she wants to do with her life. The Year of the Dog turns out exactly as advertised. Elementary school readers will enjoy the familiar details of school life and the less familiar but deliciously described Chinese holiday meals. Interspersed with the happenings of daily life are her mother's stories of Pacy's grandparents' lives and her own struggles as a new immigrant. Occasional black-and-white drawings by the author enliven the text. This comfortable first-person story will be a treat for Asian-American girls looking to see themselves in their reading, but also for any reader who enjoys stories of friendship and family life.
The Review
Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2005 (Vol. 73, No. 24))
Being Taiwanese-American is confusing, and being the only Asian kid in your elementary school-except for your older sister-is not always comfortable. Pacy has high hopes for the Year of the Dog, which, she learns, is a year for finding friends and finding yourself. The friend comes first: a new girl, Melody, whose family is also Taiwanese-American. Over the course of the year, Pacy eats at Melody's house, where the food is familiar but also very different, celebrates her cousin's Red Egg day, writes a story for a national contest, visits Chinatown in New York City and wins a prize. Not only does she feel rich, she knows what she wants to do with her life. The Year of the Dog turns out exactly as advertised. Elementary school readers will enjoy the familiar details of school life and the less familiar but deliciously described Chinese holiday meals. Interspersed with the happenings of daily life are her mother's stories of Pacy's grandparents' lives and her own struggles as a new immigrant. Occasional black-and-white drawings by the author enliven the text. This comfortable first-person story will be a treat for Asian-American girls looking to see themselves in their reading, but also for any reader who enjoys stories of friendship and family life.
The Connection
I quite enjoy Chinese New Year. It would be fun to share this story during Chinese New Year and help kids figure out which animal represents the year they were born and see if the descriptions of those animals represent them accurately. I was born in the year of the rat. According to the Chinese Culture Center (c-c-c.org) "People born in the Year of the Rat are noted for their charm and attraction for the opposite sex. They work hard to achieve their goals, acquire possessions, and are likely to be perfectionists. They are basically thrifty with money. Rat people are easily angered and love to gossip. Their ambitions are big, and they are usually very successful. They are most compatible with people born in the years of the Dragon, Monkey, and Ox." That's me, pretty much dead on, and my husband was born in the year of the ox!
I quite enjoy Chinese New Year. It would be fun to share this story during Chinese New Year and help kids figure out which animal represents the year they were born and see if the descriptions of those animals represent them accurately. I was born in the year of the rat. According to the Chinese Culture Center (c-c-c.org) "People born in the Year of the Rat are noted for their charm and attraction for the opposite sex. They work hard to achieve their goals, acquire possessions, and are likely to be perfectionists. They are basically thrifty with money. Rat people are easily angered and love to gossip. Their ambitions are big, and they are usually very successful. They are most compatible with people born in the years of the Dragon, Monkey, and Ox." That's me, pretty much dead on, and my husband was born in the year of the ox!
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