Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok

Apparently, I am on an Asian cultural kick with the books I've been reading lately ~ Peony in Love, Please Look After Mom, and now Girl in Translation.  That seems to happen to me sometimes.  I'll be perusing the shelves in the library and start pulling books with the same theme or premise without even realizing what I've done.  It's usually unintentional.  So I'm not always quite sure how this happens.  Whether its instinct, intuition, or not-so-random mindlessness that has been guiding my book choices, it's been working out for me lately.

Girl in Translation is a work of fiction that reads like a seamless memoir because it allows readers to feel deeply compassionate for the narrator, Kimberly Chang.  Every event, circumstance, and emotion bears a validity that is easily recognized in those every-day people to whom we may not always be able to give a second glance but whose presence overwhelms our sympathies.

Kimberly has high hopes for success and liberty as she and her mother move from Hong Kong to Brooklyn, NY when she is only 11 years old.  Unaccustomed to the language and culture, Kimberly and her mother rely upon the "kindness" and "charity" of Aunt Paula.  Aunt Paula "generously" supplies her younger sister and niece with a rat and roach infested apartment in a condemned building and jobs in her clothing sweatshop earning 1 1/2 cents per skirt.  While Kimberly attends public school, she begins to realize just how dire her and her mother's situation truly is and vows to create a better life for the two of them.

Girl in Translation is a wonderful reminder to its readers that dreams can only be realized if you work hard enough for them.  It also reminds us that we all have the ability to make choices for ourselves, but it's those choices that have been made for us that are sometimes the hardest ones to overcome.