Kam MakRecensioni

This book could be used for upper primary and intermediate groups. This is a book of poems that depict an immigrant's life in Chinatown. This book would be great to use for teaching about Chinese culture, poetry, and even just to have in the classroom, available for independent reading.

This book is good for an intermediate age group. It tells the story, through a series of poems, of a boy (the author) moving from China to Chinatown in the US and finding the similarities and differences in the culture and everyday life. I would definitely have it in my classroom, and possibly use it to encourage empathy in my students, and inform them of the importance of preserving culture.

This book is about immigrating from Hong Kong, China to the United States. The character in the story shares his experiences growing up in Chinatown and how he misses his home. I would recommend this story because it does well sharing the difficulties and immigrant may face growing up in a new place. The book also had colorful illustrations and includes aspects of his cultures food and holidays in the book such as New Year's Day. This would be great book for 2nd and graders and a read aloud for 5th graders and below.

This is a great book to overview the hardships and beauty of immigration. Some people have a really hard time finding a sense of community when they immigrate to a new country because everyone is a stranger to them and this story outlines a boy finding that community and eventually becoming more comfortable in his own environment.

This would be a good book for primary or intermediate students. This book is from the perspective of a young boy who immigrated from Hong Kong to the United States, in which he lives in a place called Chinatown. The book takes the reader on the story of a year in Chinatown, and every page contains a poem and a very realistic painting of different aspects of Chinatown that reflect the Asian culture of the main character. This is a helpful book because it shows how an individual can hold onto their heritage culture if they immigrate to a new place, and it shows how big of an impact a community can have on an individual. I would use this book to teach my students about how cultures can exist and be valued within other cultures, and to share a view of Asian culture with them.

Kam Mak records his first year in Chinatown through poems. Apprehensive and homesick, he notices everything as obscure, different, not home. He is reminded of China by the firecrackers, food, and traditions, but at first he is unsure of this new "home". As the year progresses, Mak becomes more familiar and comfortable in Chinatown. The place may be different, but he appreciates the familiarity with China and accepts Chinatown as his new normal. Change is hard and takes time to get used to, but Mak shows us that you don't have to forget the old in order to love the new.½

Everything about this book is fantastic. It is a serious of poems, broken up into season, that tell absolutely vivid stories about the author's childhood experiences growing up in Chinatown, particularly experiencing Chinese holidays and customs away from China. The poems don't follow a rhyme scheme so this would be a great book to use to teach about the various types of poems. The illustrations were captivating and hard to discern from photography, the painting was so realistic and vivid. What I like is that Third Culture students will be able to relate to the main character's feelings about immigrating away from home. I know that this would have made me feel less alone as a child. I hope that the way he observes his surroundings with an astute eye and turns them into beautiful poems will serve as a model for students to see the beauty around them despite their situations.

The experience I had reading this book was not a great one. The illustrations are beautiful (given the half star), but the book over all did not leave me with a sense of identity as it pertains to the asian culture. When writing a book about a culture that is rarely represented, it is important to leave the reader with an experience that is memorable, and engrained in the mind. The paper that was used for the book was very thick and hard to turn therefore I looked for the numbers on the book to guide me, but there were none. The story line also seemed a bit choppy, therefore I was unsure if the author was talking about experiences in Chinatown or in New York, and because there were no numbers on the pages I found myself interrupting my reading by continuously flipping pages forwards and backwards. The author did not do a good job with making the distinctions between the experiences, which on it's own could have made a powerful impact on the reader, and the story. I walked away still feeling deprived of the Asian culture.½

The book was fascinating because it is written in all poems. The point of view is a young boy. The theme of the book is that home is where you make it. The story goes through the journey of the different seasons and what is taking place in Chinatown. The little boy explains what it is like in Chinatown and how it is similar to China. The young boy also shows the different things that take place in certain seasons. The book does an excellent job explaining the culture of China. As the readers, we get a sense of what it is like to grow up in a Chinatown. The illustrations are beautiful in this book. The pictures make the book more vibrant and realistic. Reading the book and having the pictures to look at makes us as the readers feel like we are there.

Kam Mak grew up in a place of two cultures, one existing within the other. Using extraordinarily beautiful paintings and moving poems, he shares a year of growing up in this small city within a city, which is called Chinatown.

Chinatown is a beautiful town and this young boys shows what Chinatown is like him for every season of the year. In winter he plays in the leaves and pickle kumquats with his grandmother. In spring he plays checkers with his friends and during the summer he sits by his mother while she works 12 hour days. After they are done they go to lake and race dragons. In the fall they fish and light lanterns. When winter comes around, it starts all over again. This boy's love for his town is charming and the author did a great job at showing the reader's all the great things Chinatown has to offer.

A short picture book with beautiful illustrations, detailing his experience in a Chinese diaspora. The poems tell about celebrations, seasons, food and traditions that he loves in his culture. This would be appropriate for third graders probably.

This is a book of poems from a Chinese boy. The poems are great and easy to follow, but the artwork is really what's so tremendous about this book. The art work represents the Chinese culture, at least in my opinion, in great ways. Because of the illustrations, I think that this is a great book to introduce to young children.

My China Town is a folklore that tells about Chinese culture like folk customs, art and people. It introduces what are typical Chinese people doing all the year, and what is China town looks like. This realism picture book uses pretty oil pictures tells China town is a place of dragons and dreams, full of wonder and magic and it is a home.

This picture book tells the story of a child, through rhyming, who came to America with his parents from China and is now living in Chinatown. You are able to get a glimpse in the life of Chinatown and the life or an immigrant. This is a realistic literature text written through rhyming.

The poems were easy and straight to the point. You could imagine you were there. The author was so the illustrator an he did a good job on the illustrations. They were really realistic. I learned some things about the Asian culture Chinese to be exact. I would read these poems to the class as a fast was to get a sense of a different culture.

This is about a young boy that moved to America. He misses home and feels as if Chinatown will never be the same as home. He compares everything about Chinatown and his home in China. He doesn't think he could ever like living in America, but slowly he learns although he's in a different country, he will not be away from his home and traditions. I would read this book to show what different cultures do for New Years.

This is a beautifully illustrated book about a boy who has just immigrated to Chinatown from Hong Kong. At first, he is lonely and homesick. But throughout the year (told in poems), he becomes more comfortable because spending time in Chinatown reminds him of home. I think this book would be appropriate for 3rd grade and up.½

What incredible detail this book exhibits. I enjoyed the poetry, the mastery of literary devices, the narrative thread that each poem maintained, but more than any of that, the illustrations. This man is truly a master of his craft. I have never seen such vivid detail conveed in an image. I am astounded by how lifelike the images were. I honestly believed at times that I was looking at a photograph lightly modified to appear to be a painting. The colors were so vivid and lifelike, the shadowing and shading completely mesmerizing I am curious as to how he did it. This is a great piece of work.

This is a book of poems that tells about a young boy who is adjusting to life in an American city chinatown. The boy reflects on his life in Hong Kong and everything he had to leave behind to move to America. The poems are organized by seasons and end in Winter with the Chinese New Year celebrations.

Genre Critique: This is a poetry book but the poems don't rhyme. They are divided into seasons and titled accordingly. I thought these poems were kind of boring but there were parts that compared life in Hong Kong to life in Chinatown that were good. It also tells about some of the Chinese traditions which is informational.

Media: painting

Poems of a young boy in America that misses his culture at home.

This tells the story of a young Chinese immigrant's first year in the United States. It is a collection of poems and paintings done by author Kam Mak. The illustrations are wonderfu and lifelike; almost like photographs.

A young boy describes the sights, sounds, and smells associated with where he lives. He gives very vivid descriptions.

The book would be useful in talking about cities within cities, communities, and moving to a new place.

Through one year a boy learns to accept his new home in Chinatown even though he misses his true home in China. He finds similarities throughout the year and begins to call his new home My Chinatown.
A good book to help kids who have had to move to a new place.

I really enjoyed this book book because it gives you an in site from a child perspective of Chinatown in New York. The narrator through out the entire story is a child and his experiences for the first year of his life being away from home,(Hong Kong). He talks about the different holidays, like New Years and the different things that he, his mom and grand mother would celebrate back at home and how they now have to celebrate those things in Chinatown and how the celebration would be so much better if they were celebrating it back at home in Hong Kong. He talks about how English words taste like like metal in his his mouth. This is considered a multicultural book. I would recommend it to anyone. It was a joy to

I would have the entire class work in groups on a large paper dragon. The head would be made by painting a large paper bag. The body would consists of a long roll of packaging (butcher) paper, which can be decorated with feathers, glitter, and/or markers. When the dragon is complete, I would have groups of students wear it through the halls of our school, to the accompaniment of drums or cymbals.