The Amah

Ribbons

by Laurence Yep

Amy Chin, practicing to perform in her ballet school's recital, finds her plans sidetracked when her mother takes a job as a nanny for Stephanie, a wealthy girl Amy's own age. Reprint.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Middle Grade, Childrens, Asian American, Contemporary

192 pages, Paperback

First published June 21, 1999

About the author

Born June 14, 1948 in San Francisco, California, Yep was the son of Thomas Gim Yep and Franche Lee Yep. Franche Lee, her family's youngest child, was born in Ohio and raised in West Virginia where her family owned a Chinese laundry. Yep's father, Thomas, was born in China and came to America at the age of ten where he lived, not in Chinatown, but with an Irish friend in a white neighborhood. After troubling times during the Depression, he was able to open a grocery store in an African-American neighborhood. Growing up in San Francisco, Yep felt alienated. He was in his own words his neighborhood's "all-purpose Asian" and did not feel he had a culture of his own. Joanne Ryder, a children's book author, and Yep met and became friends during college while she was his editor. They later married and now live in San Francisco.

Although not living in Chinatown, Yep commuted to a parochial bilingual school there. Other students at the school, according to Yep, labeled him a "dumbbell Chinese" because he spoke only English. During high school he faced the white American culture for the first time. However, it was while attending high school that he started writing for a science fiction magazine, being paid one cent a word for his efforts. After two years at Marquette University, Yep transferred to the University of California at Santa Cruz where he graduated in 1970 with a B.A. He continued on to earn a Ph.D. in English from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1975. Today as well as writing, he has taught writing and Asian American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley and Santa Barbara.

Reviews

[yiming · Rating 3 out of 5]

Made it to page 40. Just meh, didn't feel it was worth finishing. There was a weird thing with the mom character where she seemed really entranced by the white British family she worked for---felt like some weird colonized mind/internalized racism stuff that weirded me out. Characters seemed kinda boring and story didn't really seem to be going anywhere interesting. I liked the other Lawrence Yep books I've read better.

[Gale · Rating 3 out of 5]

CHERISHED FAMILY HEIRLOOMS

T welve-year-old Amy Chin feels trapped between two cultures as she and her four younger siblings grow up in 1990's San Francisco. Slender with a dancer's body she is eager to practice for her ballet class' production of CINDERELLA. But she resents a sudden casting change so that she has to play the part of one of the mean step-sisters. In fact there are frequent reference to the themes of magic and adaptation of this classic fairy tale throughout this serious YA novel. Obliged to take on the unappreciated role of sibling babysitter, Amy can grimly identify with both Cinderella and the step-sisters in this golden coin of privilege and poverty.

Widowed Mrs. Chin struggles to raise five children on her own--not to mention pay for Amy's ballet lessons, so she is overjoyed to accept a positions as an Amah (non-teaching governess) in the wealthy home of Mr. Sinclair--recently of Honk Kong. As Mama places increasing responsibility on her eldest Amy resents the disrespect of the brats, as she calls them. Mama seems to ignore Amy's needs to attend class and have a costume ready, and be loved for being a good and obedient daughter. As Mama continues praising her perfect angel, Miss Stephanie, Amy's jealousy and anger finally burst out. This ladylike princess has stolen both Mama and Amy's siblings--though does she really think that love can be purchased with comics, food and barely used clothing?

Amy ultimately learns that all that glitters is not necessarily gold, for there is a great disparity between the fashionable exterior of the Sinclairs' opulent lifestyle and their private pain; both father and daughter are tortured by cruel memories and false accusations. Can Amy overcome her prejudice against the pampered Eurasian princess in time to recognize and nurture the true magic of the Cinderella story? Yep presents a poignant portrait of the psychological trauma of first gene-
ration Chinese-Americans--struggling to fit in, while forced to retain and respect enigmatic traditions of their heritage. Amy has yet to learn what Mama considers her most prized family heirloom. And Why.

(October 12, 2010. I welcome dialogue with teachers.)

[Danielle T · Rating 4 out of 5]

While The Amah takes place in the world of Ribbons, our POV character is Amy Chin, Robin's friend. Her mother is a widow with 5 children to take care of, so she's seemingly gotten a break as an ex-pat family recently from Hong Kong is looking for a Chinese amah. Amy feels parallels between her stepsister role at ballet class to her home life, but finds out that Miss Stephanie (her mother's charge) also lives in a cage, albeit more gilded.

Rereading as an adult, there's some glimmers of darkness around the edge- when Stephanie is surprised Mrs. Chin paints life at the Sinclair house as rosy, or when Amy catches a glimpse of a scar on Stephanie's wrist (not the direct I thought it was going to take, but still pretty grim for a middle grade book...!) Ultimately the message is also that it's better to adapt with changes, and that there's often complexity below the surface of what looks like a idyllic situation.

There is some continuity from The Cook's Family as Ah-Way is still in Grandmother's life!

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

This middle grade children's book is about an immigrant Chinese family and facing changes. A single mother takes on a roll as Amah or Nanny to a girl with a single father. Amy has some jealousy about the time the mother spends with the other girl. We learn that there is so much more to this story, and everyone has a lesson to learn here.

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was really thrilled to find this on the library shelf. I've heard a lot about Laurence Yep (and enjoyed another of his books, Lady of Ch'iao Kuo Warrior of the South, Southern China, A.D. 531, before I started the 50books_poc challenge). But we've mostly got his fantasy books, and I'm really not into dragons at the moment. And so I'd sort of given up on Yep for the moment. Until The Amah turned up. It's a ballet book! A genre I really adore!

There is so very much to recommend this book. Yep has a definite talent for getting inside the heads of girls: I really loved Amy, her frustrations with her mother, with Stephanie, with her brothers and sisters. All the characters, in fact (with the exception of the younger Chin children, and Amy's school friends other than Robin) were beautifully drawn. Amy's battles with her mother reminded me of, well, me in my early adolescence. Madame and Grandmother and Mr Sinclair had their individual scenes and sort of just leapt off the page.

Even though I'd seen it as a 'ballet book' it really isn't: we never see the performance of Cinderella Amy is practicing for - that's not the point of the story. But it's there, and it's what got me in. :-)

I really enjoyed this book, and I'm looking forward to reading Child of the Owl and hunting out more of the Golden Mountain Chronicles. And maybe someday when I'm feeling like reading about dragons...

[Molly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Laurence Yep’s The Amah tells the story of twelve-year-old Amy who must miss her beloved ballet classes to care for her younger siblings when her mother becomes an amah (Chinese nanny) for the affluent Miss Stephanie. Forced to baby-sit her rambunctious siblings, Amy’s resentments begin to build. While the reader naturally sides with Amy, Yep does an outstanding job of explaining her mother’s point of view as well. By sacrificing time with her own children to take care of her charge, Amy’s mother can afford to continue the expensive ballet lessons.
Yep’s description of the cultural strife between an American daughter and a Chinese mother is both poignant and eye opening for the reader. Yep has created an authentic story of a young girl torn between her Chinese and American cultures. Her mother expects her to be the dutiful daughter, but Amy stands up to her when she feels her ballet lessons are being sacrificed. Through a difficult financial situation, both Amy and her mother learn how to bridge their cultural differences and communicate better. Yep succeeds in portraying a generation gap common in the Asian Pacific American community without resorting to stereotypes or caricatures. The only problem present in the book is that the story is slightly predictable and formulaic. The conflict between mother and child is wrapped up a bit too neatly. Despite these qualms, The Amah is a good piece of multicultural children’s literature exploring personal and cultural conflicts arising between the generations in a Chinese American family.

[Sandra Strange · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little young for my high school readers, this Yep novel shows the realistic struggles of as Chinese American girl whose father has died, leaving her mother to struggle making a living as an amah (like a nanny, but more intertwined with her charges' lives to a rich Chinese American family. Amy, who is in love with ballet and has been recently cast as a stepsister in the Cinderella ballet, feels rejected by her hypercritical mother, who keeps praising the girl she is tending. Her mother's job threatens Amy further when she must miss practice to tend her siblings while her mom works. The conflicts in this novel are well drawn, and the ending is satisfying.

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book revovles around the whole Cinderella/Stepsister attitude. When Amy's mom takes a job as an amah, a Chinese nanny, Amy feels she is left out. Every night that her mom comes home all she hears about is Miss Stephanie, this is the girl that Mrs. Chin takes care of. As Amy gets to know more about Stephanie and her personal life she changes her thoughts about her. It is a good book to read to realize that a person's life may seem perfect on the outside, but when you look inside you see their just like you.

[Squeaky · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't hate it or anything, actually, I wish the book had been longer, and not resolved so quickly. The ballet stuff was interesting, and I don't even appreciate ballet. Maybe a little more, now! I think the first 4/5s of the story were much better than the last 1/5th.

[Lybah · Rating 1 out of 5]

it wasnt a good book. Anyone out there that wants to read it, don't