American Born Chinese Part 1

American Born Chinese is an interesting book. It is the first book of its kind that we have read so far in class. Its basically a large comic book. It uses pictures, speech bubbles, and other comic features and is the most unique book we have read so far. While not a big comic fan, I truly have enjoyed this book so far. It takes on a serious tone, especially for a comic, yet it still remains able to make a few bright and funny moments throughout. The pictures do a great job at illustrating what is going on. The book focuses highly around stereotypes and how they differ from reality.
The main character in the book is Jin Wang. However, there are a few other main characters in the book. The Monkey King is one of these. I don't know his main purpose in the book yet but I think it has something to do with underestimating people. The whole story of the Monkey King seems to revolve around people thinking less of others and being made brutally aware of it. Another two main characters are Chin-kee and Danny. Chin-kee is the extreme stereotype of an Asian person. He represents America's stereotype of a Chinese person by knowing everything and playing "jokes" on others. Danny is Chin-kee's cousin and simply wants Chin-kee to stop embarrassing him.
Jin does his best to be considered an American after moving to a new school. It follows his struggle to gain friends. At the end of the first half of the book, it follows his struggle to talk to a girl that he likes.
To be honest, I have never seen a book like this one before. The story is interesting and is given in a way I've never seen before. It has been a solid quick read. It is one of my favorite books read in this class so far.