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Homesick: My Own Story
This is the twenty-fifth anniversary of Jean Fritz's award-winning account of her life in China, and to honor this story, it is only fitting that it be added to our prestigious line of Puffin Modern Classics. This fictionalized autobiography tells the heartwarming story of a little girl growing up in an unfamiliar place. While other girls her age were enjoying their childhood in America, Jean Fritz was in China in the midst of political unrest. Jean Fritz tells her captivating story of the difficulties of living in a unfamiliar country at such a difficult time.
163 pages, Paperback
First published October 8, 1982
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2017 people want to read
About the author
Jean Fritz
93 books156 followersJean Guttery Fritz was an American children's writer best known for American biography and history. She won the Children's Legacy Literature Award for her career contribution to American children's literature in 1986. She turned 100 in November 2015 and died in May 2017 at the age of 101.
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March 4, 2025
Homesick: My Own Story is an autobiographical account of her childhood memories in China, by Jean Fritz, written in 1982. She explains frankly in her short introduction, that for the sake of authenticity, she has to term this book "fiction", as her memories "came out in lumps" and she does not trust that they are entirely accurate or complete. It is very much a child's view of the events taking place during 1925 to 1927, at the beginning of what we know as the first Chinese Civil War.
Jean Fritz was born Jean Guttery in 1915, in Hankow in China. Here she narrates her memories of that ten year old child, attempting to recollect and convey how she felt at that time. Her parents are Christian missionaries from America, she attends a British school, and speaks fluent Chinese. Even at such a young age, Jean knows that she wants to be a writer, just as knows she wants to live in America, and wants to be called Marjorie. (She was to accomplish two of these.)
The young Jean has a strong sense of identity, and a feeling that she lives on the wrong side of the world. She loathes being called a "foreign devil" by the local children, she loathes her school, and most of all she loathes the fact that the culture she is taught is British. Most of the other children at the school are British. In one early episode, she is expected to sing the British National Anthem "God Save The King", but refuses. It does not seem right to her; she is not a British citizen. Only when her father tells her a nifty way of getting out of it, mouthing different words while appearing to join in, does she manage to square this with her conscience. The book has many such humorous moments.
"The trouble with living on the wrong side of the world was that I didn't feel like a real American. For instance. I could never be president of the United States. I didn't want to be president; I wanted to be a writer. Still, why should there be a law saying that only a person born in the United States could be president? It was as if I wouldn't be American enough."
Jean feels American through and through, and desperately wants to be with her grandmother in America. She loves her parents, wishing she had a sister to talk to, and loves her Chinese nanny, Lin Nai-Nai, too. She does enjoy various aspects of Chinese culture, but constantly feels out of place and conflicted. The only other thing she really loves, apart from her books, is the Yangtse River. Hankow is a small rural town, next to the river, and Jean loves the atmosphere there; the energy, activity and everything about the river and the junks floating upon it.
The book takes place over just two years, and there are significant changes in how the people of China behave towards foreigners during those two years, and also towards each other. There are not just two sides but many factions. There is a surge in Communist feeling and support. More and more Chinese people are becoming convinced that many of the country's ills have been caused by foreign meddling and interference in their governance. There is increasing violence and unrest, and more than once the family are in real danger, particularly Jean's father, who works for the Y.M.C.A., and refuses to leave if there are any wounded to look after.
Jean is an intelligent girl, but she is still a child, and does not fully understand the concept of a Communist revolution, or the importance of the historical events happening around her. She is totally focused on going to America, as she has been promised, resenting any interference or threat to these plans. Just as any small child, she cannot see the larger picture. Her parents try to explain the enormity of the situation to her,
"In history books war seemed to be a simple matter of two sides fighting, the right side against the wrong, so I didn't see how this Chinese war was ever going to make it into history. In the first place, there weren't just two sides. There were warlords scattered around, each with his own army, and there was the Nationalist Army (under General Chiang Kai-shek) which was trying to conquer the warlords and unify the country. Both the Communists and the Nationalists wanted to make things better in China, he explained, but both did terrible things to people who opposed them. If a man was an enemy, sometimes they'd cut off his head and stick it up on a pole as a warning to others. My father had seen this with his own eyes."
Of course eventually foreigners are not tolerated with kindness any longer, and Jean's family have to try to leave the country. How they do this, and whether they succeed, is covered in the story, which is told over seven chapters. Throughout the text, the author never takes sides politically, and shows great empathy for the ordinary people involved in these turbulent times, despite viewing the period through a child's eyes. She never forget that the servants who work for the family are human beings with their own feelings and rights, although her parents do seem to fall into an acceptance of the different roles, which Jean objects to. Her parents do not adapt very much to the Chinese way of life, but instead try to recreate their own little bit of America, and live American lives in a different country. Jean considers that there are aspects of Chinese life which she prefers to the life of her parents, and as the time gets closer to her hopefully moving to America, she realises what she will have left behind.
The story is followed by a brief summary of the background of Chinese history between 1913 and 1927 at the end. This is very helpful. The reasons behind the ordinary Chinese people's dislike and distrust of foreigners are made clear to anyone not conversant with this period of Chinese history, in these final notes. The book also has several sketchy illustrations by Margot Tomes insterspersed in the text, perhaps as it has a young focus and could be classed as Juvenile Literature. However I do not feel they add anything. They feel rather too caricatured.
The book is an interesting read, with an ususual focus, during a period of history and place outsiders do not hear much about. Many details of a past Chinese culture are there; the long fingernails of the family's chef, used to create magnificent sculptured centrepieces for the table out of butter; Lin Nai-Nai's poor tiny bound feet, meaning that she has to hobble, and preventing her from walking any distance. There are the rickshaws drawn through the streets by men desperate for a few coins, or the social mores she was taught,
"I never saw anyone give money to a beggar. You couldn't, my father explained, or you'd be mobbed by beggars. They'd follow you every place; they'd never leave you alone. I had learned not to look at them when I passed and yet I saw. The running sores, the twisted legs, the mangled faces."
These details are what make this book fascinating. It is worth a look. The author eventually succeeded in her dream of becoming an author and living in America. She has won many awards for her work, including the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award in 1886, at that time a three-yearly award, for making "a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children". She specialises in children's literature, writing American biographies and history.
Homesick: My Own Story was the runner-up for the Newbery Medal in 1983. Jean Fritz is now one hundred years old!
Jean Fritz was born Jean Guttery in 1915, in Hankow in China. Here she narrates her memories of that ten year old child, attempting to recollect and convey how she felt at that time. Her parents are Christian missionaries from America, she attends a British school, and speaks fluent Chinese. Even at such a young age, Jean knows that she wants to be a writer, just as knows she wants to live in America, and wants to be called Marjorie. (She was to accomplish two of these.)
The young Jean has a strong sense of identity, and a feeling that she lives on the wrong side of the world. She loathes being called a "foreign devil" by the local children, she loathes her school, and most of all she loathes the fact that the culture she is taught is British. Most of the other children at the school are British. In one early episode, she is expected to sing the British National Anthem "God Save The King", but refuses. It does not seem right to her; she is not a British citizen. Only when her father tells her a nifty way of getting out of it, mouthing different words while appearing to join in, does she manage to square this with her conscience. The book has many such humorous moments.
"The trouble with living on the wrong side of the world was that I didn't feel like a real American. For instance. I could never be president of the United States. I didn't want to be president; I wanted to be a writer. Still, why should there be a law saying that only a person born in the United States could be president? It was as if I wouldn't be American enough."
Jean feels American through and through, and desperately wants to be with her grandmother in America. She loves her parents, wishing she had a sister to talk to, and loves her Chinese nanny, Lin Nai-Nai, too. She does enjoy various aspects of Chinese culture, but constantly feels out of place and conflicted. The only other thing she really loves, apart from her books, is the Yangtse River. Hankow is a small rural town, next to the river, and Jean loves the atmosphere there; the energy, activity and everything about the river and the junks floating upon it.
The book takes place over just two years, and there are significant changes in how the people of China behave towards foreigners during those two years, and also towards each other. There are not just two sides but many factions. There is a surge in Communist feeling and support. More and more Chinese people are becoming convinced that many of the country's ills have been caused by foreign meddling and interference in their governance. There is increasing violence and unrest, and more than once the family are in real danger, particularly Jean's father, who works for the Y.M.C.A., and refuses to leave if there are any wounded to look after.
Jean is an intelligent girl, but she is still a child, and does not fully understand the concept of a Communist revolution, or the importance of the historical events happening around her. She is totally focused on going to America, as she has been promised, resenting any interference or threat to these plans. Just as any small child, she cannot see the larger picture. Her parents try to explain the enormity of the situation to her,
"In history books war seemed to be a simple matter of two sides fighting, the right side against the wrong, so I didn't see how this Chinese war was ever going to make it into history. In the first place, there weren't just two sides. There were warlords scattered around, each with his own army, and there was the Nationalist Army (under General Chiang Kai-shek) which was trying to conquer the warlords and unify the country. Both the Communists and the Nationalists wanted to make things better in China, he explained, but both did terrible things to people who opposed them. If a man was an enemy, sometimes they'd cut off his head and stick it up on a pole as a warning to others. My father had seen this with his own eyes."
Of course eventually foreigners are not tolerated with kindness any longer, and Jean's family have to try to leave the country. How they do this, and whether they succeed, is covered in the story, which is told over seven chapters. Throughout the text, the author never takes sides politically, and shows great empathy for the ordinary people involved in these turbulent times, despite viewing the period through a child's eyes. She never forget that the servants who work for the family are human beings with their own feelings and rights, although her parents do seem to fall into an acceptance of the different roles, which Jean objects to. Her parents do not adapt very much to the Chinese way of life, but instead try to recreate their own little bit of America, and live American lives in a different country. Jean considers that there are aspects of Chinese life which she prefers to the life of her parents, and as the time gets closer to her hopefully moving to America, she realises what she will have left behind.
The story is followed by a brief summary of the background of Chinese history between 1913 and 1927 at the end. This is very helpful. The reasons behind the ordinary Chinese people's dislike and distrust of foreigners are made clear to anyone not conversant with this period of Chinese history, in these final notes. The book also has several sketchy illustrations by Margot Tomes insterspersed in the text, perhaps as it has a young focus and could be classed as Juvenile Literature. However I do not feel they add anything. They feel rather too caricatured.
The book is an interesting read, with an ususual focus, during a period of history and place outsiders do not hear much about. Many details of a past Chinese culture are there; the long fingernails of the family's chef, used to create magnificent sculptured centrepieces for the table out of butter; Lin Nai-Nai's poor tiny bound feet, meaning that she has to hobble, and preventing her from walking any distance. There are the rickshaws drawn through the streets by men desperate for a few coins, or the social mores she was taught,
"I never saw anyone give money to a beggar. You couldn't, my father explained, or you'd be mobbed by beggars. They'd follow you every place; they'd never leave you alone. I had learned not to look at them when I passed and yet I saw. The running sores, the twisted legs, the mangled faces."
These details are what make this book fascinating. It is worth a look. The author eventually succeeded in her dream of becoming an author and living in America. She has won many awards for her work, including the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award in 1886, at that time a three-yearly award, for making "a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children". She specialises in children's literature, writing American biographies and history.
Homesick: My Own Story was the runner-up for the Newbery Medal in 1983. Jean Fritz is now one hundred years old!
October 8, 2012
I remember finding this book when I volunteered at the Lebanon Public Library. I could not put it down, and re-read it many times. As an adult, I had a short career as a middle school language arts teacher, and I ended every class by reading to my students. I chose this book for one of my classes, and they were mesmerized. It was a group of children who had trouble paying attention and staying on task, but they could not hear enough of this story. I had moved across the country to take this job, and when I read the part where Jean's mother is reunited with my sister, I had to fight through reading, and not cry in front of my students. It was such a moving moment, and it touched my poor homesick heart. My students left the room nearly silent. The next day, one of my students told me she never knew a book could do that to you.
August 26, 2022
I do have to say and to also voice this rather strongly and loudly that albeit there is very much interesting and enlightening cultural and historical information on early 20th century China depicted and provided by Jean Fritz in her 1983 Newbery Honour winning memoirs Homesick: My Own Story, my personal reading reaction to Fritz' featured and presented text about growing up in China as the daughter of American missionaries is one of occasional but massive malaise and discomfort. For indeed, Jean Fritz (in her childhood incarnation within the pages of Homesick: My Own Story) far too often comes across and behaves, she regularly acts like both rather spoiled and pampered and also considerably more problematically for me (and in particular so for my adult self) as sometimes being frustratingly, strangely bigoted towards both the Chinese as a people and towards China as a country.
Because yes, the textually presented in Homesick: My Own Story constants complaints and whining by Jean Fritz (as a child) about her feeling out of place, disrespected and not happy with her parents' job as missionaries in China, her sometimes downright anger at living in a foreign country, in China instead of in the USA (even though she was actually born in China) while this is of course understandable to a point, Jean Fritz' childhood feelings are also making me as an adult totally cringe (and quite often so) whilst reading, since it is really and truly textually so woefully and painfully obvious in Homesick: My Own Story that young Jean Fritz does not at all like living in China, that she neither appreciates nor respects either Chinese culture or the Chinese themselves and that no one is really telling her that her bigoted and stereotypical attitudes are not appropriate either (but on the other hand, Jean Fritz as a child is probably also pretty much mirroring and imitating her parents' and Europeans' and Americans' behaviours and attitudes towards the Chinese and towards China in eternal, so there also is not really anyone even present within the pages of Homesick: My Own Story to show and to demonstrate that racism and stereotypical attitudes are wrong and dangerous).
And finally, but also very much importantly, although my inner child does definitely understand in particular the homesickness Jean Fritz feels, and even for a country she has never actually encountered, my reaction as an adult reader to Homesick: My Own Story has been and is considerably less positive and less tolerant. Since if truth be told, although Jean Fritz writing a memoir of her childhood experiences and feelings has been interesting and enlightening (even if occasionally truly annoying and frustrating), I do find it a huge textual issue that Jean Fritz as an adult writing about her childhood, never once really seems willing in Homesick: My Own Story to examine her remembrances and her often really quite negative and politically incorrect attitudes critically and with even some political insight, hindsight and personal condemnation, that yes indeed, Homesick: My Own Story certainly portrays Jean Fritz as a child as someone with a huge chip on her shoulders, as someone imitating racism and stereotyping, but with not much if any actual criticism thereof by the author, by Jean Fritz of her childhood self (and of how the constant bigotry against the Chinese and how they were generally not masters of their own lives and their own country in fact created scenarios like the Boxer Rebellion).
Because yes, the textually presented in Homesick: My Own Story constants complaints and whining by Jean Fritz (as a child) about her feeling out of place, disrespected and not happy with her parents' job as missionaries in China, her sometimes downright anger at living in a foreign country, in China instead of in the USA (even though she was actually born in China) while this is of course understandable to a point, Jean Fritz' childhood feelings are also making me as an adult totally cringe (and quite often so) whilst reading, since it is really and truly textually so woefully and painfully obvious in Homesick: My Own Story that young Jean Fritz does not at all like living in China, that she neither appreciates nor respects either Chinese culture or the Chinese themselves and that no one is really telling her that her bigoted and stereotypical attitudes are not appropriate either (but on the other hand, Jean Fritz as a child is probably also pretty much mirroring and imitating her parents' and Europeans' and Americans' behaviours and attitudes towards the Chinese and towards China in eternal, so there also is not really anyone even present within the pages of Homesick: My Own Story to show and to demonstrate that racism and stereotypical attitudes are wrong and dangerous).
And finally, but also very much importantly, although my inner child does definitely understand in particular the homesickness Jean Fritz feels, and even for a country she has never actually encountered, my reaction as an adult reader to Homesick: My Own Story has been and is considerably less positive and less tolerant. Since if truth be told, although Jean Fritz writing a memoir of her childhood experiences and feelings has been interesting and enlightening (even if occasionally truly annoying and frustrating), I do find it a huge textual issue that Jean Fritz as an adult writing about her childhood, never once really seems willing in Homesick: My Own Story to examine her remembrances and her often really quite negative and politically incorrect attitudes critically and with even some political insight, hindsight and personal condemnation, that yes indeed, Homesick: My Own Story certainly portrays Jean Fritz as a child as someone with a huge chip on her shoulders, as someone imitating racism and stereotyping, but with not much if any actual criticism thereof by the author, by Jean Fritz of her childhood self (and of how the constant bigotry against the Chinese and how they were generally not masters of their own lives and their own country in fact created scenarios like the Boxer Rebellion).
March 20, 2020
Cleanliness:
Children's Bad Words
Mild Obscenities & Substitutions - 2 Incidents: shut up
Name Calling - 15 Incidents: Foreign devil, nitwit, a real bird, Chink
Scatological Terms - 2 Incidents: bl**dy (as a swear word)
Religious Profanity - 3 Incidents: thank goodness, for heaven's sake, land's sake
Religious & Supernatural - 5 Incidents: It mentions people “begging the River God to return a son or grandson who may have drowned.” A boy has a charm that is supposed to keep away smallpox and a pigtail on his head that is to fool the gods. A girl calls out, “May the River God protect you.”
A girl doesn’t like Sundays because of having to sit through church and Sunday school. The preacher discusses death and passing into glory. “At the temple inside the cave, I could go up to the altar and talk to the Rain God if I wanted to, but I didn’t have a thing to say to him. My prayers had nothing to do with weather.”
Violence - 1 Incident: “If a man was an enemy, sometimes they’d cut off his head and stick it up on a pole as a warning to others.”
Romance Related - 12 Incidents: “She [friend] told me things that sounded so crazy I had to ask my mother if they were true. Like where babies came from.” (She becomes furious with grown-ups for not telling her things). A girl thinks a sailor is cute. An aunt has lots of beaus and her niece wonders if she has turned into a flapper. A girl listens to two songs entitled “Five Feet Two, Eyes of Blue” and “Gimme a Little Kiss, Will Ya Huh?” A girl has a crush, “was in love” with an actor. A girl was hoping there would be teenage boys on the ship. “Give my love to John Gilbert” an actor. A girl sees a picture of Charles Lindbergh and thinks she might “consider having a crush on him - that is, if and when I ever felt the urge.” A boy asks a girl if he can walk her home again after school. It mentions that a boy has no pants so that he “could just let loose” when he had to go. Breast pocket.
“Bare-bottomed little boys.”
Attitudes/Disobedience - 17 Incidents: A girl reasons that she doesn’t have to “do as the Romans do when in Roman” since her parents don’t. So she disobeys her mother and does not sing the British anthem (because she’s American). A schoolboy bullies her for this and because she is upset, plays a mean trick on her nanny and skips school the next day. A police officer asks a girl why she’s not in school. She lies and gets angry at him. “Deep in my heart I knew that goodness didn’t come natural to me… I’m not always good. Sometimes I don’t even try… Of course I knew I was wrong to disobey my mother but that hadn’t stopped me. Still, I did feel guilty.” She is upset that parents/adults are always concerned about whether she is “good” and not something else like skilled or beautiful, etc. and that don’t those matter? This is a reoccurring theme. A girl yells at her mom and stamped out of the room. A girl questions why her mom expects her to be “one-hundred-percent perfect.” A girl yells at her parents for not including her in their decisions. A girl hopes her baby sister is not one-hundred-percent perfect. She hates the baby’s name and asks if she’s to tell a lie that she likes the name. After her baby sister dies, a girl gets mad at the preacher for saying death was a glory. She gets mad at her father for telling her she’s been “good” through this difficulty. A girl “shouted all the Chinese swear words” she knew. A girl lies and feels ashamed. A girl wants to see a bathroom so she pretends she has to go just so she can see it. Although the dad thinks it’s ok, the children know the mother won’t allow it so they try to sneak but get caught. (This is about watching a movie and a girl thinks “how could a movie hurt anyone.” “You make me sick, David Hull...Cry-babying over something in the past that you can’t know a thing about (his adoption). Don’t you know your real past is right there? Yours and mine both… It’s been under our noses the whole time and we’ve hardly noticed.” A girl yells at her dad to let her out of the car. Girls tease another girl about living in China and ask if she ate rats. She teases back. ‘I wondered if she’d ever forget goodness. Probably the last thing she’d say to me before I walked down the aisle to be married was “Be good.”’
Conversation Topics - 14 Incidents: A girl watches as a “magician” swallows fire. A woman ran away from her husband because he had taken a second wife (her family disowns her). A cook smokes a cigarette in the kitchen often. Mentions Halloween. A family walks around the house naked, discuss whether Adam and Eve were real people and also where babies come from. It’s mentioned that the parents may get a divorce. A girl says her parents got into another fight so they are probably getting divorced. A woman calls out: “Egg of a turtle! May all your children fall sick! May you outlive every one of them! May the gods heap misfortune on your head!” Mentions fortune-telling cards. A girl must guess what the surprise is. She asks whether it is animal, vegetable, or mineral. Her father says “animal” and declares it’s a baby sister. The couple get a divorce and move to different apartments. A girl learned the Charleston and her friend thinks “that was a flapper thing to do.” Opium is mentioned. A girl asks her grandma whether she ever worries about whether she’ll be good or not. The grandma tells her never, that she just loves her the way she is. A grandma and girl make fun of her school teacher and say she has cooties.
Parent Takeaway
The main character does not behave well at all. She gets mad easily, is stubborn, lies, yells at her parents, etc. In fact, throughout the book she is upset with her parents (and adults in general) who only care about whether she is being good or not. There is definitely a lack of morals. The friend and the friend's family are also a bad influence on the main character - they are boundary-pushers, going about the house naked, speaking openly of the birds and the bees, and with the parents getting a divorce.
#geography #asia #china #culture
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Children's Bad Words
Mild Obscenities & Substitutions - 2 Incidents: shut up
Name Calling - 15 Incidents: Foreign devil, nitwit, a real bird, Chink
Scatological Terms - 2 Incidents: bl**dy (as a swear word)
Religious Profanity - 3 Incidents: thank goodness, for heaven's sake, land's sake
Religious & Supernatural - 5 Incidents: It mentions people “begging the River God to return a son or grandson who may have drowned.” A boy has a charm that is supposed to keep away smallpox and a pigtail on his head that is to fool the gods. A girl calls out, “May the River God protect you.”
A girl doesn’t like Sundays because of having to sit through church and Sunday school. The preacher discusses death and passing into glory. “At the temple inside the cave, I could go up to the altar and talk to the Rain God if I wanted to, but I didn’t have a thing to say to him. My prayers had nothing to do with weather.”
Violence - 1 Incident: “If a man was an enemy, sometimes they’d cut off his head and stick it up on a pole as a warning to others.”
Romance Related - 12 Incidents: “She [friend] told me things that sounded so crazy I had to ask my mother if they were true. Like where babies came from.” (She becomes furious with grown-ups for not telling her things). A girl thinks a sailor is cute. An aunt has lots of beaus and her niece wonders if she has turned into a flapper. A girl listens to two songs entitled “Five Feet Two, Eyes of Blue” and “Gimme a Little Kiss, Will Ya Huh?” A girl has a crush, “was in love” with an actor. A girl was hoping there would be teenage boys on the ship. “Give my love to John Gilbert” an actor. A girl sees a picture of Charles Lindbergh and thinks she might “consider having a crush on him - that is, if and when I ever felt the urge.” A boy asks a girl if he can walk her home again after school. It mentions that a boy has no pants so that he “could just let loose” when he had to go. Breast pocket.
“Bare-bottomed little boys.”
Attitudes/Disobedience - 17 Incidents: A girl reasons that she doesn’t have to “do as the Romans do when in Roman” since her parents don’t. So she disobeys her mother and does not sing the British anthem (because she’s American). A schoolboy bullies her for this and because she is upset, plays a mean trick on her nanny and skips school the next day. A police officer asks a girl why she’s not in school. She lies and gets angry at him. “Deep in my heart I knew that goodness didn’t come natural to me… I’m not always good. Sometimes I don’t even try… Of course I knew I was wrong to disobey my mother but that hadn’t stopped me. Still, I did feel guilty.” She is upset that parents/adults are always concerned about whether she is “good” and not something else like skilled or beautiful, etc. and that don’t those matter? This is a reoccurring theme. A girl yells at her mom and stamped out of the room. A girl questions why her mom expects her to be “one-hundred-percent perfect.” A girl yells at her parents for not including her in their decisions. A girl hopes her baby sister is not one-hundred-percent perfect. She hates the baby’s name and asks if she’s to tell a lie that she likes the name. After her baby sister dies, a girl gets mad at the preacher for saying death was a glory. She gets mad at her father for telling her she’s been “good” through this difficulty. A girl “shouted all the Chinese swear words” she knew. A girl lies and feels ashamed. A girl wants to see a bathroom so she pretends she has to go just so she can see it. Although the dad thinks it’s ok, the children know the mother won’t allow it so they try to sneak but get caught. (This is about watching a movie and a girl thinks “how could a movie hurt anyone.” “You make me sick, David Hull...Cry-babying over something in the past that you can’t know a thing about (his adoption). Don’t you know your real past is right there? Yours and mine both… It’s been under our noses the whole time and we’ve hardly noticed.” A girl yells at her dad to let her out of the car. Girls tease another girl about living in China and ask if she ate rats. She teases back. ‘I wondered if she’d ever forget goodness. Probably the last thing she’d say to me before I walked down the aisle to be married was “Be good.”’
Conversation Topics - 14 Incidents: A girl watches as a “magician” swallows fire. A woman ran away from her husband because he had taken a second wife (her family disowns her). A cook smokes a cigarette in the kitchen often. Mentions Halloween. A family walks around the house naked, discuss whether Adam and Eve were real people and also where babies come from. It’s mentioned that the parents may get a divorce. A girl says her parents got into another fight so they are probably getting divorced. A woman calls out: “Egg of a turtle! May all your children fall sick! May you outlive every one of them! May the gods heap misfortune on your head!” Mentions fortune-telling cards. A girl must guess what the surprise is. She asks whether it is animal, vegetable, or mineral. Her father says “animal” and declares it’s a baby sister. The couple get a divorce and move to different apartments. A girl learned the Charleston and her friend thinks “that was a flapper thing to do.” Opium is mentioned. A girl asks her grandma whether she ever worries about whether she’ll be good or not. The grandma tells her never, that she just loves her the way she is. A grandma and girl make fun of her school teacher and say she has cooties.
Parent Takeaway
The main character does not behave well at all. She gets mad easily, is stubborn, lies, yells at her parents, etc. In fact, throughout the book she is upset with her parents (and adults in general) who only care about whether she is being good or not. There is definitely a lack of morals. The friend and the friend's family are also a bad influence on the main character - they are boundary-pushers, going about the house naked, speaking openly of the birds and the bees, and with the parents getting a divorce.
#geography #asia #china #culture
**Like my reviews? Then you should follow me! Because I have hundreds more just like this one. With each review, I provide a Cleanliness Report, mentioning any objectionable content I come across so that parents and/or conscientious readers (like me) can determine beforehand whether they want to read a book or not. Content surprises are super annoying, especially when you’re 100+ pages in, so here’s my attempt to help you avoid that!
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October 15, 2013
Pretty decent read, I s'pose. I read the whole thing in about two hours on Saturday. I would say the book was just okay. I thought it over-simplified many of the issues going on in China. I couldn't help but feel that the author seemed like a rather spoiled girl. She's complaining about living in China and she wants to live in America (where her parents are from), but meanwhile she's surrounded by all these servants and she has a huge house while millions of Chinese are starving on the streets. I understand that it must have been difficult to be a foreigner during the beginnings of the revolution in China (the Chinese were NOT very fond of foreigners at that time). I understand that she felt like an outsider in the country where she'd spent her entire life. But still, I think the author did not put things into perspective enough. Looking back as an adult, I think she should be mature enough to see that the Chinese were kind of justified in their distrust of foreigners. For a long time, China was basically split up between several foreign nations. Most of the foreigners living in China were extremely rich, living in lavish households filled with dozens of servants (like the author, Jean Fritz). I can hardly blame the starving and emaciated Chinese citizens for calling the author and her family "foreign devils." Yet, Jean Fritz acts like she was such a victim. I realize that Jean Fritz herself was not to blame for what happened in China (and of course, I do NOT think that anything could justify the killing of foreigners by Chinese revolutionaries), but I still think that she should see now as an adult that the Chinese attitude toward foreigners was at least partly justified. Fritz portrays the events in China in a very one-dimensional way and I think her whole book suffers because of it.
July 18, 2017
This makes me want to sit down and write about my own childhood! I love how she wrote it as a story. This was a Newbery honor book in 1983.
June 8, 2017
Jean Fritz wrote biographies and histories for children. In this book she describes her own life as the child of Americans living in China in the 1920s. Her memories create a rich sense of place, though tinged with a child's colonial biases.
The depiction of the growing Chinese resistance to European spheres of influence, which exploded in the Boxer Rebellion, creates a feeling of being there at an exciting and dangerous time. The 10-year-old Jean, who had never lived in the country she reveres, finally gets her passionate wish to go "home" to America. Many people will identify with her rebellions and the growing-up stresses she experiences.
Though written for children, this book opens up a period of history in a tangible way that adults can appreciate.
The depiction of the growing Chinese resistance to European spheres of influence, which exploded in the Boxer Rebellion, creates a feeling of being there at an exciting and dangerous time. The 10-year-old Jean, who had never lived in the country she reveres, finally gets her passionate wish to go "home" to America. Many people will identify with her rebellions and the growing-up stresses she experiences.
Though written for children, this book opens up a period of history in a tangible way that adults can appreciate.
December 20, 2015
Any children's librarian worth her salt knows this author's books. What a delight to find out she was born in China and spent her first 13 years there. China in the Roaring 20's was not without its share of thrills and chills. I have read many books about Chinese history and culture--this one put a piece into the puzzle that I had not read about before. This was a treat.
March 15, 2010
I thought this was an interesting take on how to write a biography—as fiction if one couldn't be sure of getting things entirely right. I liked her reminiscences more than I remember enjoying her historical fiction for children when I was younger.
April 1, 2013
While Jean Fritz calls this fiction because of the format, it is her own story of growing up in 1920s China. She attends a British school and finally rebels against having to sing God Save the Queen every morning. Her father helps her find an cleverly easy solution that satisfies her and the establishment. She maintains correspondence with a grandmother she has never met and yearns to set foot in her country of allegiance.
The area Jean's family lives in becomes troubled as the Communists and the Nationalists struggle for power and dominance. Foreigners are looked at with suspicion and then aggression. The family has to leave the country by "narrow squeaks," as her father calls difficult situations. At last Jean greets America with a bit of appropriate and emotional verse and self-consciously aims to fit into her new school, but first must learn the Pledge of Allegiance.
I read this book in one sitting. Ignored breakfast and let the phone go unanswered. Jean's story conveyed well the emotional and situational experiences of a young girl on the brink of adolescence in a country not her own, who finally realizes and values that it holds her past. Having lived in Asia for a year might have heightened my pleasure in the story, but I think anyone interested in a first hand account of this episode in China's history from a young girl's perspective would find Homesick a memorable and fun experience.
The area Jean's family lives in becomes troubled as the Communists and the Nationalists struggle for power and dominance. Foreigners are looked at with suspicion and then aggression. The family has to leave the country by "narrow squeaks," as her father calls difficult situations. At last Jean greets America with a bit of appropriate and emotional verse and self-consciously aims to fit into her new school, but first must learn the Pledge of Allegiance.
I read this book in one sitting. Ignored breakfast and let the phone go unanswered. Jean's story conveyed well the emotional and situational experiences of a young girl on the brink of adolescence in a country not her own, who finally realizes and values that it holds her past. Having lived in Asia for a year might have heightened my pleasure in the story, but I think anyone interested in a first hand account of this episode in China's history from a young girl's perspective would find Homesick a memorable and fun experience.
August 26, 2022
I did not find to be racist, despite bearing in mind warnings from others. Jean did respect and also feel compassion for the different Chinese people. The boy with whom she shared oranges, the coolies, her father's friend, her companion. In fact, she admired them.
And she did not so much admire other 'foreign devils' like that schoolboy or that teacher who insisted she sing the British nat'l anthem.
Sure, she wants to be with her grandparents, in a country that feels more like her true home... but I can't imagine holding that against her. It's what her parents told her. Ok, so she's a little uncritical of her parents, but they weren't bad people, and they didn't do wicked things. They meant well and sacrificed a lot because they were doing the best they could to do what they thought was the right service (not righteous, not power-hungry).
My edition, at least, had prologue note, (not enough) illustrations, photos, and history note. I enjoyed the book very much, felt fully immersed in it, and read it in one session when sleep was late coming.
And she did not so much admire other 'foreign devils' like that schoolboy or that teacher who insisted she sing the British nat'l anthem.
Sure, she wants to be with her grandparents, in a country that feels more like her true home... but I can't imagine holding that against her. It's what her parents told her. Ok, so she's a little uncritical of her parents, but they weren't bad people, and they didn't do wicked things. They meant well and sacrificed a lot because they were doing the best they could to do what they thought was the right service (not righteous, not power-hungry).
My edition, at least, had prologue note, (not enough) illustrations, photos, and history note. I enjoyed the book very much, felt fully immersed in it, and read it in one session when sleep was late coming.
August 27, 2021
I loved this little book. My girls read several of Jean Fritz's historical biographies growing up so when I saw her name on the Newbery list I knew I wanted to read this sooner rather than later. It's the story of Jean's childhood years spent in China with her family as missionaries during the early 1920's. There are some sad parts, but it's also quite funny at times as she was a precocious child.
Warning: As a product of the times this book does contain some stereotypes about the Chinese. However, these are not originated by the author or her family. Jean and her family thought poorly of people who look down upon the Chinese and at one point Jean gets herself into trouble at school while standing up to a boy who was making racist comments.
Newbery Honor 1983
Warning: As a product of the times this book does contain some stereotypes about the Chinese. However, these are not originated by the author or her family. Jean and her family thought poorly of people who look down upon the Chinese and at one point Jean gets herself into trouble at school while standing up to a boy who was making racist comments.
Newbery Honor 1983
June 10, 2017
I read this book years ago and enjoyed it. When I heard that author Jean Fritz recently died at the age of 101 (!!!!!), I immediately had to find an edition to listen to. And found this great edition with her reading it!!!! So great!! I enjoyed it immensely. It is moving, insightful, and educational about the time and place Jean finds herself (growing up in a China). And I wish I could have known her grandma!
June 21, 2017
I got a bunch of Jean Fritz' books as she has recently died. She has a unique and readable voice whose simple style belies deep lessons. I loved the characterizations of her father (with his Narrow Squeaks), her relationship with her grandmother and especially with her foot-bound amah Lin Nai-Nai.
Want to read
April 21, 2010Note that I do not think the description posted above is the correct one for this book which actually discusses Fritz's experiences as an "expat" girl in China in the 1920s
March 21, 2016
Another book I would have read aloud with my teenager if she were around.
February 21, 2017
What an interesting thing to explore, an American who has never been to America.
May 14, 2019
This was the darlingest.
June 25, 2024
4.5 stars. 1983 Newbery, the last one I read in my goal to read all the winners from that year (except Sweet Whispers Brother Rush which I purposely set aside). Audiobook with all kids.
This was a Fascinating story-autobiographical account of the authors childhood (up to age 12?) in 1920s China on the verge of a communist revolution. I loved this book and I really thought I was going to be bored going into it.
spoilers alert
This is definitely more interesting for older children, there are some very sad events that happen in her life including the unexpected joy of a new baby sister being born when she was around 11 and the immense sadness when her sister died within weeks of birth. I loved how the author included this very real event from her child perspective of working through the sadness and joy of having a baby sister. I can’t think of another children’s book I’ve read that deals with this topic and it was so well done.
This was a Fascinating story-autobiographical account of the authors childhood (up to age 12?) in 1920s China on the verge of a communist revolution. I loved this book and I really thought I was going to be bored going into it.
spoilers alert
This is definitely more interesting for older children, there are some very sad events that happen in her life including the unexpected joy of a new baby sister being born when she was around 11 and the immense sadness when her sister died within weeks of birth. I loved how the author included this very real event from her child perspective of working through the sadness and joy of having a baby sister. I can’t think of another children’s book I’ve read that deals with this topic and it was so well done.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
April 21, 2012I read the book Homesick by Jean Fritz
SUMMARY:This book is an autobiography about a girl who grows up in China, with American parents, and her amah. She dreams of going to America, which she write letters to her grandma who lived in Pennsylvania. This book describes her everyday struggles of how to define "home" and "family". She lives in pre-communist Hankow, China. She attends a British school and refuses to sing "god save the queen", but she does whisper quietly the part about America. Later she has to disappear to a remote cottage in China to get away from the revolution happening in her home city. Then she has a baby sister that dies suddenly which causes much sadness in her family at this already tough time. Eventually she leaves China and she realizes her homesickness isn't for America, but she is leaving her place of birth. SHe then reflects on how important living in China was in her life and how much she truly will miss it.
CRITIQUE: I believe that young readers will not have an interest in the person in this particular book. I would not pick it off of a single shelf because i had never heard of Jean Fritz before now. But i believe once children start reading this book they will become interested in her way of life and how they should value American as their home. I think the readers can very much identify with the main character. She is the same age that many children will be when reading this book in my class so they will be able to relate to her problems and wonders about other places in the world and where her family is from. Her language she uses is humorous and somewhat sarcastic which makes the story believable. With the humorous and easy to read language it maintains the readers attention throughout the whole book. The author really grabs the attention of the readers also by using first person language and showing the story from the main characters perspective. I did some extra research on the character and the information in the book is very accurate and true. Since it is an autobiography the information is expected to be very true and a first hand experience. I also enjoyed reading the expert in the back of the book and seeing the two real photos of Jean Fritz to get a mental picture of what she looked like through this time in her life.
RESPONSE: I enjoyed this book because it showed the differences in cultures and what it would be like to live in China. It also shows to appreciate your family and the place you come from. I would have this book in my classroom to give a different perspective to China that many children have no encountered. This is a first hand experience of someone that is the audiences age in my classroom and they will be able to really relate to Jean at this point in her Life.
SUMMARY:This book is an autobiography about a girl who grows up in China, with American parents, and her amah. She dreams of going to America, which she write letters to her grandma who lived in Pennsylvania. This book describes her everyday struggles of how to define "home" and "family". She lives in pre-communist Hankow, China. She attends a British school and refuses to sing "god save the queen", but she does whisper quietly the part about America. Later she has to disappear to a remote cottage in China to get away from the revolution happening in her home city. Then she has a baby sister that dies suddenly which causes much sadness in her family at this already tough time. Eventually she leaves China and she realizes her homesickness isn't for America, but she is leaving her place of birth. SHe then reflects on how important living in China was in her life and how much she truly will miss it.
CRITIQUE: I believe that young readers will not have an interest in the person in this particular book. I would not pick it off of a single shelf because i had never heard of Jean Fritz before now. But i believe once children start reading this book they will become interested in her way of life and how they should value American as their home. I think the readers can very much identify with the main character. She is the same age that many children will be when reading this book in my class so they will be able to relate to her problems and wonders about other places in the world and where her family is from. Her language she uses is humorous and somewhat sarcastic which makes the story believable. With the humorous and easy to read language it maintains the readers attention throughout the whole book. The author really grabs the attention of the readers also by using first person language and showing the story from the main characters perspective. I did some extra research on the character and the information in the book is very accurate and true. Since it is an autobiography the information is expected to be very true and a first hand experience. I also enjoyed reading the expert in the back of the book and seeing the two real photos of Jean Fritz to get a mental picture of what she looked like through this time in her life.
RESPONSE: I enjoyed this book because it showed the differences in cultures and what it would be like to live in China. It also shows to appreciate your family and the place you come from. I would have this book in my classroom to give a different perspective to China that many children have no encountered. This is a first hand experience of someone that is the audiences age in my classroom and they will be able to really relate to Jean at this point in her Life.
November 15, 2013
Jean Guttery Fritz is the author of over fifty books for children, including such excellent historical fiction as Early Thunder, The Cabin Faced West, and Brady, and biographies like The Double Life of Pocahontas; Why Not, Lafayette?; George Washington's Breakfast; And Then What Happened, Paul Revere?; Where Was Patrick Henry on the 29th of May?; Will You Sign Here, John Hancock?; The Great Little Madison; Traitor: The Case of Benedict Arnold; Harriet Beecher Stow and the Beecher Preachers; and Just A Few Words, Mr. Lincoln. Homesick, which was a Newbery Honor winning book in 1983 and also won the American Book Award, is her own life’s story, or at least two years of it, from October, 1925, when she was nine, almost ten, having been born in Hangkow, China to American missionary parents, until September, 1927, when she and her parents had left China and returned to their family’s home in Washington, PA. She says, “Strictly speaking, I have to call this book fiction, but it does not feel like fiction to me. It is my own story, told as truly as I can tell it.”
Referred to thus as a “fictionalized autobiography,” it is the captivating, heartwarming story of a little girl growing up in an unfamiliar place who, instead of enjoying her childhood in America, was living in China during a difficult period of political unrest. Fritz takes readers back to her home on the Yangtze River in the days of the 1927 Chinese Revolution and, blending humor with simple, candid honesty, writes about being called a “foreign devil,” the death of a newborn sibling, and the general aches and pains of growing up. Some might complain that she comes across as a somewhat irritatingly spoiled, whiny complainer, but it is more the sassiness that is so typical of pre-teen girls, and everything works out in the end. In addition, there is a great deal of information about early twentieth century Chinese culture and history, so it would be a good complement to a study of that era and place. There are a few references to smoking cigarettes but otherwise nothing objectionable. Also, it is interesting to note that when the British School in Hangkow which Jean attended closed because of the war, her mother told her, “We’ll have lessons together.” So she was homeschooled for a time. All in all, it is a fine story.
Referred to thus as a “fictionalized autobiography,” it is the captivating, heartwarming story of a little girl growing up in an unfamiliar place who, instead of enjoying her childhood in America, was living in China during a difficult period of political unrest. Fritz takes readers back to her home on the Yangtze River in the days of the 1927 Chinese Revolution and, blending humor with simple, candid honesty, writes about being called a “foreign devil,” the death of a newborn sibling, and the general aches and pains of growing up. Some might complain that she comes across as a somewhat irritatingly spoiled, whiny complainer, but it is more the sassiness that is so typical of pre-teen girls, and everything works out in the end. In addition, there is a great deal of information about early twentieth century Chinese culture and history, so it would be a good complement to a study of that era and place. There are a few references to smoking cigarettes but otherwise nothing objectionable. Also, it is interesting to note that when the British School in Hangkow which Jean attended closed because of the war, her mother told her, “We’ll have lessons together.” So she was homeschooled for a time. All in all, it is a fine story.
May 8, 2011
This 1983 Newbery Honor book is a fictionalized autobiography of author Jean Fritz's childhood in China in the 1920s. Born in China to YMCA missionaries, Jean longed with all her heart to be a real American, to meet her grandmother in person and to help her feed the chickens on her farm in Washington, P.A. Even so Jean loves her amah, Lin Nai-Nai, the Yangtse River, and holidays to the Chinese countryside. A headstrong, absurdly (by today's standards) innocent child, Jean chafes at her mother's constant reminders to be "good." She just wants to be Jean, or better yet "Marjorie" -- a name that seems to her to be much more American and with more room to be herself in. The picture of China during this turbulent pre-revolutionary time is from a child's unquestioning point of view but the paternalistic, even if sometimes well-meaning, foreign interference and the seeds of the communist revolution hinted at in the text are clarified in an excellent brief afterward.
Book Pairings: The free-thinking, au naturel parents of Jean's best friend, Andrea, actually put me in mind of an essay by Joan Grant in her book Many Lifetimes about healing and honoring all the senses and naturalism at her home Britain in the 1920s. Another children author's memoir from about the same period that would be a nice pairing is Beverly Cleary's A Girl from Yamhill. Jean's child-self also reminded me a great deal of my mother is her stories about her childhood in Wisconsin in the 1930s. The book would be an excellent resource for storytellers and writers interested in creating stories about their childhoods.
Book Pairings: The free-thinking, au naturel parents of Jean's best friend, Andrea, actually put me in mind of an essay by Joan Grant in her book Many Lifetimes about healing and honoring all the senses and naturalism at her home Britain in the 1920s. Another children author's memoir from about the same period that would be a nice pairing is Beverly Cleary's A Girl from Yamhill. Jean's child-self also reminded me a great deal of my mother is her stories about her childhood in Wisconsin in the 1930s. The book would be an excellent resource for storytellers and writers interested in creating stories about their childhoods.
October 29, 2008
This book suitable for ages nine through adult, and is very appropriate for unit studies on China in the 1920's. Jean makes the Yangtse River come alive with its coolies hauling water, women washing clothes, swarming houseboats, and junks with eyes painted on their prows. She lets us know how it felt to be a proud American (though one born in China) in a British school, forced to sing "God Save the King" every day. And she gives us her child's eye perspective on the growing turmoil in China, especially in Hankow and Wuchang, as the Chinese people became more and more suspious of foreigners, and warlords, Nationalists and Communists vied with each other for power. Being called a "foreign devil" took some getting used to, and several times the family had some very narrow escapes. Thoughout all her Chinese adventures, Jean never forgot that she was an American, and she was very eager to return to her native land. What she didn't expect was how difficult it would be to fit into American culture
when she got home to her grandparents' farm in Pennsylvania. She was shocked when American children asked her what it was like to eat a rat. And she took offense when her classmates referred to the Chinese as "chinks."
I would highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to know more about either Jean Fritz or China. It would make an excellent book to read to the entire family, for there is much to discuss. From Chinese culture to the tactics of Communists in taking over a country, to how to fit into a new culture, there is much to learn.
when she got home to her grandparents' farm in Pennsylvania. She was shocked when American children asked her what it was like to eat a rat. And she took offense when her classmates referred to the Chinese as "chinks."
I would highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to know more about either Jean Fritz or China. It would make an excellent book to read to the entire family, for there is much to discuss. From Chinese culture to the tactics of Communists in taking over a country, to how to fit into a new culture, there is much to learn.
May 24, 2013
PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN ABROAD
Imagine being the only American student in a British school. Then imagine being homesick for a country you never lived in.
In this graceful blend of autobiography and fiction, Jean Fritz provides readers with insight into the maturation of--not only a girl--but also a patriot. Her steadfast private dream is to live in the land of the free.
Set in China during the 1920's while the Communist Revolution is gathering momentum, HOMESICK shares a girl's observations on the upheaval of the only Society she has ever known. She endures the zealous violence which is especially directed towards all "foreign devils," while suffering the private heartaches of her own family life.
Jean's father works for the Y: the Fritzs' only motivation is to improve the lot of the Chinese people, but these national events dramatically disrupt most lives. Resentful at being stuck on the wrong side of the globe, Jean yearns for her relatives in Pennsylvania, for she has been denied a Yankee childhood. Nor is she indifferent to the plight of her neighbors; in particular she loves and feels great compassion for her faithful Chinese nanny, Lin Nai-Nai. The brutality of war is related through a young girl's eyes, while her imagination is trapped bewteen two worlds. Will she become so ensnared in the insidious trap of Revolution that she has to reliquish her dream of living as a true American? If she does escape, will she ever return to that land of wise-eyed junks?
(January 14, 2010. I welcome dialogue with teachers.)
Imagine being the only American student in a British school. Then imagine being homesick for a country you never lived in.
In this graceful blend of autobiography and fiction, Jean Fritz provides readers with insight into the maturation of--not only a girl--but also a patriot. Her steadfast private dream is to live in the land of the free.
Set in China during the 1920's while the Communist Revolution is gathering momentum, HOMESICK shares a girl's observations on the upheaval of the only Society she has ever known. She endures the zealous violence which is especially directed towards all "foreign devils," while suffering the private heartaches of her own family life.
Jean's father works for the Y: the Fritzs' only motivation is to improve the lot of the Chinese people, but these national events dramatically disrupt most lives. Resentful at being stuck on the wrong side of the globe, Jean yearns for her relatives in Pennsylvania, for she has been denied a Yankee childhood. Nor is she indifferent to the plight of her neighbors; in particular she loves and feels great compassion for her faithful Chinese nanny, Lin Nai-Nai. The brutality of war is related through a young girl's eyes, while her imagination is trapped bewteen two worlds. Will she become so ensnared in the insidious trap of Revolution that she has to reliquish her dream of living as a true American? If she does escape, will she ever return to that land of wise-eyed junks?
(January 14, 2010. I welcome dialogue with teachers.)
December 9, 2011
Genre: Autobiography/ Newbery Honor
This is the autobiography of Jean Fritz; who was born to American missionaries in China and raised there until she was 13. This story talks about her time spent in China and her struggles with feeling different, while living there and attending a British school, and the turmoil that was occurring in China at that time.
Setting
The setting of this book is not something that all readers will be familiar with. This is a first-hand account of what it was like living in China in the late 1920s. The story is told through what the author experienced when she was a young girl, and is a great way for younger readers to learn about that culture and experience from someone who lived through it. The author struggles with her life in China; she often wishes she were in America, doing things American children do, like roller skate. She asks her mother what it was like growing up in her hometown in Pennsylvania (pg. 51). She feels out of place in China, and is dealing with typical adolescent issues like listening to her mother’s directions.
Curriculum Connection: This book would be perfect for students in grades 4th-6th. The author is discussing what her life was like right about that age, so they might be able to relate to some of the problems that she struggled with. It can be used to highlight differences in cultures, feeling different, and also a lesson on Chinese culture and history.
This is the autobiography of Jean Fritz; who was born to American missionaries in China and raised there until she was 13. This story talks about her time spent in China and her struggles with feeling different, while living there and attending a British school, and the turmoil that was occurring in China at that time.
Setting
The setting of this book is not something that all readers will be familiar with. This is a first-hand account of what it was like living in China in the late 1920s. The story is told through what the author experienced when she was a young girl, and is a great way for younger readers to learn about that culture and experience from someone who lived through it. The author struggles with her life in China; she often wishes she were in America, doing things American children do, like roller skate. She asks her mother what it was like growing up in her hometown in Pennsylvania (pg. 51). She feels out of place in China, and is dealing with typical adolescent issues like listening to her mother’s directions.
Curriculum Connection: This book would be perfect for students in grades 4th-6th. The author is discussing what her life was like right about that age, so they might be able to relate to some of the problems that she struggled with. It can be used to highlight differences in cultures, feeling different, and also a lesson on Chinese culture and history.
April 28, 2012
"Known for her impeccable research, Fritz writes about subjects she really admires, and she unveils them with such wit...Turn an American historical figure over to her and sparks go off with such glare that there's a celebration worthy of a Fourth of July parade. She is especially fond of the American Revolutionary War period and has written a number of books about the men responsible for the birth of this nation...Yet there was a slight ax to grind with those men. When they wrote the Constitution, they gave plenty of rights to themselves but few to women. Fritz dealt with the battle that took another century and a half to win when she wrote You Want Women to Vote, Lizzie Stanton?
"[But] in 1982, Fritz wrote an entirely different kind of book. This time she turned to her own childhood. Born in 1915 to American missionaries in China, Jean often felt like an outsider and was homesick for the America she knew only through letters she received from her grandmother. Homesick: My Own Story was named a Newbery Honor Book in 1983.
"At the age of 95, Jean Fritz published Alexander Hamilton: The Outsider, her forty-fifth book, on January 6, 2011. From a girl in China who once felt like an outsider, Fritz has become a true insider in the world of children's books. In 1986, she was awarded the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award by the Association for Library Service to Children for her substantial and lasting contribution to children's literature."
from Book Links, January 2011, Pat Scales
"[But] in 1982, Fritz wrote an entirely different kind of book. This time she turned to her own childhood. Born in 1915 to American missionaries in China, Jean often felt like an outsider and was homesick for the America she knew only through letters she received from her grandmother. Homesick: My Own Story was named a Newbery Honor Book in 1983.
"At the age of 95, Jean Fritz published Alexander Hamilton: The Outsider, her forty-fifth book, on January 6, 2011. From a girl in China who once felt like an outsider, Fritz has become a true insider in the world of children's books. In 1986, she was awarded the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award by the Association for Library Service to Children for her substantial and lasting contribution to children's literature."
from Book Links, January 2011, Pat Scales
Want to read
August 14, 2011Poor Patrick Henry…he had to share my discovery of car sickness all those years ago (I still hate driving through those hills). My poor bookshelf! It still holds the remains of the said book, the very same copy.
Seven. That is the number of instances where my compartment-happy mother tried to do away with that book. In suffering over my pristine Saxon text for that year, it did me comfort to look up to see an old friend, rat-shredded cover splitting a decrepit smile over the title.
Through the barrage of history textbooks my parents provided me with over the years, it was the Landmark series I stole away, a colorful, clothbound array. They whetted my appetite for the “serious” stuff out there: those 700-page behemoths that loomed above me, the fusty NG copies that lay across the nibbled-on coffee tables (my library pretty much doubled as a daycare center. It IS too bad it took me so long to stop hating the grouchy librarians).
I was almost tall enough to see above the second shelf when Fritz left her indefinite imprint. We may remember near all that we have read, we may remember almost nothing that we have read. But I think we all remember that door-opener, the one voice that goaded you to the window, the blast of air hitting you so stealthily.
Seven. That is the number of instances where my compartment-happy mother tried to do away with that book. In suffering over my pristine Saxon text for that year, it did me comfort to look up to see an old friend, rat-shredded cover splitting a decrepit smile over the title.
Through the barrage of history textbooks my parents provided me with over the years, it was the Landmark series I stole away, a colorful, clothbound array. They whetted my appetite for the “serious” stuff out there: those 700-page behemoths that loomed above me, the fusty NG copies that lay across the nibbled-on coffee tables (my library pretty much doubled as a daycare center. It IS too bad it took me so long to stop hating the grouchy librarians).
I was almost tall enough to see above the second shelf when Fritz left her indefinite imprint. We may remember near all that we have read, we may remember almost nothing that we have read. But I think we all remember that door-opener, the one voice that goaded you to the window, the blast of air hitting you so stealthily.
January 23, 2010
I picked this up to learn more about Jean Fritz, who has authored many historical children's books.
It is a collection of memoirs from an American who lived in China for her first 14 years. Jean gave bold voice to normal feelings of childhood, which made me laugh out loud a few times as I related to her.
Many troubles came to her family during the 1920's in China because of political unrest and revolt. Being of American born parents, chinese called her a "foreign devil." She was so relieved once they set sail for America and her grandparents. I loved how she wrote very personal and thoughtful letters to her grandmother, though she had never met her. It opened my mind to the idea of a long-distance mentor.
Jean was proud of her American heritage and grateful to finally be in the states, where she felt she would finally belong. However, she felt confused when during her first day of school, other children seemed to mock the pledge of allegiance and make fun of the Chinese as well. What a disappointment! But, thankfully, a decent fellow befriended her.
It is a collection of memoirs from an American who lived in China for her first 14 years. Jean gave bold voice to normal feelings of childhood, which made me laugh out loud a few times as I related to her.
Many troubles came to her family during the 1920's in China because of political unrest and revolt. Being of American born parents, chinese called her a "foreign devil." She was so relieved once they set sail for America and her grandparents. I loved how she wrote very personal and thoughtful letters to her grandmother, though she had never met her. It opened my mind to the idea of a long-distance mentor.
Jean was proud of her American heritage and grateful to finally be in the states, where she felt she would finally belong. However, she felt confused when during her first day of school, other children seemed to mock the pledge of allegiance and make fun of the Chinese as well. What a disappointment! But, thankfully, a decent fellow befriended her.
November 13, 2019
This is an excellent and well-written memoir of the author's childhood in China. She was born there while her father ran the YMCA in Hankow and lived there until she was 12, when they returned to America amid revolution in China. Her simple stories of life there and how the foreigners were treated, as well as her view of childhood, parents, and teachers is compelling and worth the read. She is insightful but never writes down to her audience and her portrayal of what children feel towards adults is spot-on. Her transition to life in America is also fascinating and hopeful. I really liked the story and fell in love with the author.
November 21, 2020
Jean Fritz is an excellent story teller. No drawn out boring biography here. She lived history and so its easy to see why she ended up writing so much about it. This book is a snapshot of her childhood spanning her experiences in China and then transitioning to living in the States. From beginning to end very enjoyable. I especially liked her ability to give insight into her own childhood thinking.
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