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Jane Kuo's In the Beautiful Country is a story in verse for 10 year olds about a girl who swaps Taiwan for Los Angeles and finds it isn't what she dreamed of.
It's 1980 and Ai Shi is ten. Her dad has already gone ahead to America, which in Chinese is called the beautiful country. She and her mum wait for their papers, then squeeze their whole lives into six suitcases. Her toys and books go on the giveaway pile, mostly to her cousin and best friend Mei.
Ai Shi (Anna, in America) has pictured white picket fences and the Hollywood sign. What she gets is a one-bedroom flat with beige carpet, a black-and-white TV, and a burger restaurant on Route 66 that her parents have sold everything to buy.
It's told in short poems, one small moment at a time. That makes it a quick read, and a very easy one to feel. On her first Halloween a child in a sheet knocks at the door, and she hides behind the sofa because she's no idea what's going on. For her eleventh birthday there's one plain doughnut and no candle.
She's funny too. She mixes her own drinks from the fizzy machine at the restaurant (7UP and Dr Pepper together is her favourite). She's cross, and hopeful, and missing Mei, often all at the same time.
School is hard for Anna. A boy in her class mocks the shape of her eyes on the playground while the other children laugh, and her lunches get laughed at too. It's written honestly and it isn't dwelt on, but it's there.
It might mean a lot to a child who's moved house or country, or who's been the new one who doesn't understand what everyone is saying. Anna's dad keeps telling her she'll be just like the Americans soon. She isn't sure she wants to be.
If your reader likes quiet, real-life stories about families pulling together, this is a lovely one to share. There's warmth in it as well as worry, like the Chinese church where she can talk in her own language again.
If they want another girl working in her family's business in California, try Front Desk. A Chinese family new to America take a job running a little motel, and their daughter is soon climbing onto the stool behind the desk.
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