Raspberries on the Yangtze

by Karen Wallace

The Yangtze in this story is not a river in China. It's the name Nancy gives to a special place near the edge of her town in the backwoods of Quebec, Canada. There, where the wild raspberries grow, Nancy and her friends, the strange and wonderful sisters Clare and Amy, explore and let their imaginations soar. The girls wonder about their neighbor, Sandra the troublemaker, and her teenage sister, Tracy. Sandra's mother thinks Nancy is a bad influence. But Nancy has seen and heard strange things happening at Sandra's house. She's sure more secrets are hidden behind those closed doors.

During this summer of change, as Nancy struggles to make sense of the world around her, she learns that things are seldom what they seem. Once something is revealed, you can't go back to the age of innocence.

Genres: Young Adult, Childrens, Fiction, Friendship, Canada

224 pages, Paperback

First published April 3, 2000

Reviews

[Libby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Raspberries On The Yangtze was a very good book. The back cover quoted a review that said, "a coming of age story" and I wholeheartedly agree with that statement.
This short but powerful book tells the story of Nancy, her brother Andrew, and their friends. Their knowledge of the 'facts of life' are garnered from listening at doors, playground gossip {Nancy tells 'facts of life' for just 15 cents!} and childhood stories. When Nancy hears rumours of God-fearing mother and daughter Mrs. and Tracy Wilkins being 'sluts', Nancy and Tracy's sister Sandra are determined to find the truth. What is hidden behind the shiny façade of the Wilkins household? What is happening between widowed Mrs Linklater and kindly Mr Chevrolet? Amongst the harsh realisations of this book are beautiful bits of childhood. Playing by the river, imagining that it is the Yangtze, drinking home made lemonade with Mr Chevrolet, Andrew's incessant wishing to visit Disneyland...
The dialogue was true to life and the first-person prose was vivid.
The whole way through I had a sense of deja vu, being reminded of Cynthia Kadohata's book Kira Kira. Both are good books in their own right but with similar writing styles and front covers.
Also, I felt like the book was something set in the childhood of the author's generation, or perhaps that of her grandmother? Although published in 2000, it seemed to be set in a time when you could sit on a neighbour's porch, roam in the woods, and sew your own clothes. Personally I felt this was clever as it made the book clearer and more strong in the story line, but it still niggles in a corner of my brain.
Overall, a brilliant book. In my library, it is classified Young Adult, and there is swearing and discussion of the facts of life {xP!} in here, so it is probably best for 12/13+

[Colm Moran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh to think with the innocence of youth. Children’s fiction could be my new genre.

[Emi B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow this book was amazing. I fell in love with raspberries on the yangtze within the first page. The characters are so believeable and charming. The way the book is told through nancy's point of view is brillant. I was so captivated by the story line and i truly felt as if i was in Canada with Nancy her brother Andrew and her dear little friends. It was also fascinating reading how children percieved the goings on around themselves and how sometimes things arnt quite as they seem and other times they are exactly as they seem. This is by far one of my favorite books of all time it is a wonderful coming of age story that you must read with a glass of home made lemonade.

[Kimberly Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

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[Becca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this years ago and although it’s not really a memorable story (it’s more character based than plot based), it was super sweet and funnier than I remembered. It gives you a snapshot of Nancy & her family’s life over a few weeks and I loved the adventures the characters went on together and all the fun they had - it was a perfect escape!

I do think it is aimed at younger teens as the writing is simple but it is very gripping and keeps you turning the page. It’s not a long book but a lot happens in it & I did thoroughly enjoy it. I love the cover too - I did spot a few missing speech marks and spaces between words etc but there weren’t too many. I do recommend this book for a short, quick, fun read and escape - really enjoyed it and glad I reread it & was able to appreciate it again!

[scintillapink · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember liking this gem a lot and finding the main character's antics amusing.

[Doris G · Rating 4 out of 5]

I woke up in the middle of the night and decided to read one of the shorter books on my TBR pile (I'm currently going through all my books to see which ones I might re-read and which ones I want to donate). I keep coming back to children's and young people's books; they often tackle life lessons that more people should heed, and often this is done via engaging stories.
Moreover, this book was just right for the situation: by the time I was ready to go back to sleep, I had read the whole book.
With just the right amount of words, the setting is described so well that I really was there, as if I was part of the groups of friends/neighbours. It shows that the location is based on where the author herself grew up. At times I felt reminded of the excursions Pippi Longstocking, Thomas and Anika get up to. 1950s childhood - get out, have adventures, come back for dinner...
But then people somehow always make things complicated. Nancy, the first-person narrator, is stuck in the middle and has trouble figuring out how to deal with some outrageous information she finds out about some neighbours.
Spoilers(?):
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....
...

The sections where Nancy finds out and describes what she knows about "the facts of life" nearly made me laugh out loud, but with a wee tear in my eye: I'd like to think that no child nowadays would be this naive (we know too much about child abuse now; can't really indulge in wishing for the allegedly "simpler times" to come back).**
Everything comes good in the end, for most of the characters anyway. The last sentence is spot-on funny, but only if you've read the whole story!

** Edit: I note one of the reviewers read the book as a child and at the time did actually believe Nancy's version of "the facts of life". That's a little scary. I therefore take several other reviewers' point that maybe this is less of a children's book than might at first appear. But really, dear parent/carer/guardian: if the child in your care doesn't know the basics, and especially the bit about consent, please remedy the situation! (Sorry, this is straying out of book review territory. Over & out.)

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Yangtze is not in this instance the river in China. It is something, I won't say what, Nancy and her friends have christened with that nickname, when they go adventuring in the woods in Quebec, Canada. I will say that it's not the Gatineau River they all live near that they call the Yangtze.

Set in the fifties, it tells a tale of old fashioned childhood before mobile phones, and even before it was common to have television in every home.

There is Nancy and her older brother Andrew. Nancy is the story's main character, which is written from her point of view.

Sisters Clare and Amy, who lost their father early in life, are Nancy's best friends.  Then there's Sandra and her sister, Tracy. Sandra is anyone's best friend until she finds someone who she thinks might be a better friend. No age is given for any of the children, though we know that Tracy is old enough to be interested in boys.

And then there is Mr Chevrolet. That of course is not his real name, no one can pronounce his Polish name. He is quite happy being happy called Mr Chevrolet and is warm and friendly to all the children.

We are regaled with the children's adventures in the woods around their home and also the mis-understandings when they listen in to grown-ups conversations and get the wrong end of the stick.

While intended as a children's book, I think a lot of grown-ups would enjoy it too. It's a short book, a novella really, which most grown ups can probably read in a couple of days (3 for me). It's charming and friendly writing will probably not appeal to readers of thrillers and crime stories. Anyone who grew up in the fifties and sixties, which includes me, will enjoy the childhood echoes and you don't need to come from Canada to appreciate it.

[Lilly Pittman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like this book. As a 23 year old, I like the simplicity of youth reads, especially after a grueling semester. The only reason this is a 4/5 for me is because it got too complicated at the end. I didn't want to think through implications/gossip/hear-say but be told what had happened clearly.

[Alicia m. · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first book I had a really ever read and really resonated with as a young teenage girl.

This was the very beginning of my introduction to literature, and it really captured my mind in a way that things do at that age.

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is on the school reading list for my 10 year old. The title and the first line are the best bits about the book. Easy read but slow.

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of my favourite books when I was younger. Rereading it for the first time in over twenty years has made me realise that I must have understood about 10% of it.

[Gloria · Rating 5 out of 5]

A refreshing young coming of age story.

[Ricardo Balsinhas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genial

[Lizzie · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 Would likely have given this a higher rating if I had read it at a younger age.

[T.S.C. Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet, charming and innocently hilarious. This is the kind of book you want to perk you up after a hard days work: read it!

[Jessica Webb · Rating 4 out of 5]

“i began to feel a bit guilty about my dealings with frogs”

[Freya Mortimer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting perspective on adult topics entirely through the eyes of children

[Nina · Rating 3 out of 5]

pretty little story, sweet like raspberries and caster sugar and made me feel like a little girl wandering through the woods. Lovely story that felt like a warm hug and finished well.

[Kate Mooney · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very wholesome. It was an easy read in a few hours and kept me turning the page with ease. The author captures childhood innocence in a way that is endearing and not overdone.

[Angela Comer · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very easy read - coming of age book - more for teens? Not one I'd read again.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good fun but hard to tag. Neither a children's book nor really an adult one. This has been returned to my bookstall in the box I found it in. To Kill a Mockingbird it is not but a good light read it definately is.

[Jo Castle · Rating 2 out of 5]

My low review is only really because I read this when I was younger (10ish) and don't remember much of the things I like to judge my books on- effectiveness of prose, etcetera etcetera.
However, this isn't a children's book. I'm not even sure if it's an older children's book. It needs an understanding to understand. That sounds very redundant, actually. I consider myself as having an understanding of books now- of the way irony works, to name one prominent factor. Little 10-year-old me did not. As such, several ideas that are kind of crucial to knowing what's going on flew over my innocent little head- ideas such as the book being set in the 50s, marital affairs, and the whole thing that Nancy doesn't actually know a lot of what she talks about. Actually, I took everything Nancy said as sage words from a fictional child much wiser than I- and assumed, among some other things, that people really do make love to each other in hotel cupboards. I suppose in hindsight I could give this book a higher rating; if it can spawn such weird confusion in my youth that I genuinely believed in, it probably holds some weight as influential text, and Nancy is probably pretty believable as a narrator if she could get a reader of the same age to consider buying 'the facts of life' from her despite the significant metaphysical divide. It also taught me at a tender age the meaning of the word 'slut'. Such was the newfound linguistic power vested in my infant self. All because I was good at reading, so my mum got some hand-me-down books from my teenage cousins to satiate my skill. Often when I look in the mirror and self-reflect, I contemplate on whether this was a wise move or not. I mean, on one hand, I knew lots of crazy words my peers didn't. On the other hand, I had the potential to commence devastating vituperation upon any single one of my fellow young girls, and it wasn't as if my understanding of its framing and context in the book would stop me, because, uh, I didn't have it. Ticking time-bomb misogyny, oh my!

In conclusion: my whole personhood is evidence that this book isn't really for impressionable kids. I don't think it's a bad book, though. I'm tempted to get another copy and revisit it now. Also, the cover is very pretty, and it'd look nice on my shelf.

[Ape · Rating 3 out of 5]

bookcrossing journal from 2007:

I don't know whether this is really children's fiction. I read it this evening and I really enjoyed it.

It describes an old-fashioned childhood of children out playing make-believe games, being allowed out into the local countryside on their own to explore. Set in Canada, the narrator is a young girl called Nancy, who lives with her parents, elder brother Andrew and their many cats and dogs. They are friends with the sisters Claire and Amy, and all the children are plagued by the annoying Wilkins family.

The Yangtze, as well as being a Chinese river, is also a wire fence the girls climb over to go and pick raspberries.

It's not a long read, but it is brilliant escapaism to take you away from the drag of the real world for an hour or so.

Longer but still similar in some ways are: Tove Jansson's Summer Book; and Esther Freud's Hideous Kinky.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely little book.
Yeah that sounds patronising.......well, it is a short book, you can read it in an hour or two but it doesn't mean it doesn't have depths.
It's a coming of age story.
Of childhood innocence that I think many city kids have probably never had or will never have again....country kids (like myself) still have a chance.
The ending felt a little abrupt to me, I feel there was more scope in this story - that it could've been a much bigger book but all in all a lovely little read.

[Adriana · Rating 3 out of 5]

A descoberta de que os bebés são feitos nos armários.
A tentativa de envenenamento da própria mãe.
Outro *a-re-ler*

*A re-leitura demonstrou-me que este não é um livro por aí além criativo nem que valha a pena - por aí além. É como que um drama de uma casa de bonecas. Aconselho qualquer pessoa a escrever um livro assim, para si própria. Mas não recomendo que passe daí. Finito. Não é mau. Não é extraordinário. A cadência é muito indecisa. Enfim...

[Sammi McSporran · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a lovely, short, easy-read book that I read in a couple of hours this evening.
It is a children's book, but the story is so charmingly written that it's a good read for adults too. Seeing the world through Nancy's eyes is so reminiscent of childhood innocence, and the story with its adventures and secrets is gorgeous.
Four stars, I think I would have enjoyed it more if it had been a little longer and more detailed, but for a children's book it really was good!

[Georgina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting short read. It captures perfectly the confusion children have to come to terms with when faced with the adult world they don't fully understand yet. Mixed with heart-warming humour, clever observations and moving characters, you can get absorbed very quickly.

[Saurav · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book is simple and yet detailed at the same time its about the life of a girl and how she understands how life works and trying to explain it to her friends they use these ideas to explain what is going on in the neighbourhood

[Rachel Armellino]

I loved this book!