In this sequel to The Year of the Book, Anna's family adopts a baby girl from China, and Chinese culture is much more front and center.
With more mentions of Chinese culture, language, and food, there also came more opportunities for mistakes. On page 10, Anna's maternal grandmother is correctly referred to was "Wai Po", but then on the very next page, she is incorrectly referred to as "Nai Nai", the term used for paternal grandmothers. On page 29, Anna's family eats Chinese food for dinner, but she talks about eating "everything on my plate", which doesn't sound right because her family would most likely be eating Chinese style - each person having their own bowl of rice, and everyone sharing meat and vegetable dishes that are placed in the center of the table. She could have said she "finished all her rice" or she "ate a little bit of everything". Neither of these are major errors, but they do take away from the book's feel of authenticity.
With so much explicit talk about Chinese-ness, I just felt like the book was kind of heavy-handed in its diversity lesson. Instead of being a book in which the main character just happened to be Chinese, it felt more like a book that was written specifically for young Chinese-American readers, people who want to learn more about Chinese culture, and families that have adopted a baby from China. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just the impression that I got.
I liked that Camille is a struggling student, which breaks the model minority stereotype of Asians being good in school. I did not think Laura's character was as well-developed, which was a shame because I thought she had so much potential in the first book. Here, we just see that she now has to divide her time between her mom and dad.
Besides the introduction of Kaylee into the family, the other major plot line in this book is Anna, Camille, and Laura having to do a science project. They end up with a pretty cute project, but it was a bit much to think that Kaylee's pediatrician was so impressed that she would ask for a summary of the project to share with her other patients.
One final random thought. I was thrown off a bit in the first few chapters because clearly Anna attends Chinese school on a weekend morning, but then how is it that she and her mom take baby Kaylee to a well-baby visit that same afternoon? It wasn't a sick visit. Are there really pediatrician's offices that are open for regular check-ups on weekends? Anyway, the doctor's schedule is neither here nor there, but it was confusing.
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