Scattergood, Augusta Making Friends With Billy Wong, 224
pages. Scholastic Press, 2016. $17.
Content: G.
It’s the summer before 6th grade and Azalea has
been banished to Paris Junction Arkansas to spend the summer with her Grandma
Clark whom she doesn’t know all that well.
Besides dealing with her “mean” grandma, she also has to avoid the town
troublemaker, the queen bee, and Billy Wong, a Chinese-American.
I don’t know well Richard Peck’s books circulate in your
library, but as funny as I find them, I can’t get students interested in them
at all. This is a similar “slice of
life” historical fiction book, but not nearly as well written and definitely
not funny. The author tiptoes around the
racism against Chinese in the 1950’s (they were classified officially as
colored) without really making a definable point. I also had a very hard time finding time
clues within the book – while supposedly weeks passed, it read like most of the
action happened within the same couple of days.
There is just not enough coherence and strength here to hold together.
NOT RECOMMENDED.
Cindy, Library Teacher
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