You are welcome to remind me that I read about nineteen times faster than the average ninth grader.) The title- American Born Chinese-says quite a bit, but there are some elements that make it special. (Admittedly, I am not a good barometer for time it takes to read things, and I need to keep this in mind when writing the curriculum this year. I read between things and finished it in two days. Okay, 233 doesn’t scream “short,” but since the drawings only take up a little more than half of each page, it does come across as brief. It is a pretty short graphic novel, at 233 pages.

I hadn’t seen American Born Chinese around, but I found it on recommendation lists for about ninth grade. (I may use Persepolis between short stories and poetry). Pretty sure that I’ll stick this one at the end of the mythology unit, which you’ll understand in just a second. I want to introduce my kids to the medium of graphic novel (if they aren’t already fans) and present it as legitimate literature, but I don’t think it needs to fall into the regular novel reading schedule. The first one that I picked up to read (partly because it would not take long to read) was the graphic novel American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang. Therefore, I ordered a number of books over the past couple weeks. I always thought I could teach college English, and high school is getting pretty close. As it stands, I will be teaching middle school/high school art (2D paper art is where I’m landing) and-drum roll-ninth grade-ish language arts, or “English.” Honestly, though I know I don’t exactly have time for it, it has to be done since I’m part of the co-op and I am unreasonably excited about teaching this particular class. I have to be ready by August, and I already am supposed to have decided on most of my curriculum.

Besides reading the couple books that I am reading for book club this summer, I am going to spend the next few weeks (at least) reading for the co-op classes I’m teaching this year.

American born chinese full book