|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
|
Product Description
From Amazon
Ting-xing Ye made her mark with her sensational autobiography, A Leaf in the Bitter Wind, which chronicled her childhood and youth in the China of the Cultural Revolution. After escaping to Canada with the help of her future husband, author William Bell, and a scholarship from York University, Ye has established herself as a writer of children's books (like Weighing the Elephant) and young adult fiction, of which Throwaway Daughter, written with Bell, is her second effort.
The plot of Throwaway Daughter hinges on the Chinese government's one-child policy and its social effects. Dong-mei (a.k.a. "Grace") is the adopted Chinese daughter of a family in suburban Ontario. Encouraged by her adopted family to get in touch with her roots, Dong-mei lights out alone for China, armed with the note she was carrying when she was found on the steps of Yangzhou orphanage. Throwaway Daughter tells its story simply and straightforwardly, sometimes sliding into a slightly preachy tone. That said, the characters in this totalitarian, Manichean universe are not entirely good or bad, as we see when Dong-mei finally meets her harsh, doctrinaire grandfather:
He held my gaze, and for a second I could see the man who used to be called Old Revolutionary Chen."Dong-mei," he said again, looking me up and down as if he was memorizing my appearance. "I have been a fool." Then he turned and walked back into the house.
With its story of Dong-mei's search for her history and her discovery of the treatment of girls under the one-child policy, Throwaway Daughter introduces young readers to important cross-cultural issues, hopefully providing a catalyst for further discussion. --Robyn Gillam --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Book Description
A dramatic and moving YA novel by Ting-xing Ye, the internationally acclaimed author of A Leaf in the Bitter Wind, working with her husband, William Bell, author of the award-winning novels for young adults Forbidden City, Zack, and Stones.
.
Throwaway Daughter tells the dramatic and moving story of Grace Dong-mei Parker, a typical Canadian teenager until the day she witnesses the Tiananmen massacre on television. Horrified, she sets out to explore her Chinese ancestry, only to discover that she was one of the thousands of infant girls abandoned in China since the introduction of the one-child policy, strictly enforced by the Communist government. But Grace was one of the lucky ones, adopted as a baby by a loving Canadian couple.
With the encouragement of her adoptive parents, she studies Chinese and travels back to China in search of her birth mother. She manages to locate the village where she was born, but at first no one is willing to help her. However, Grace never gives up and, finally, she is reunited with her birth mother, discovering through this emotional bond the truth of what happened to her almost twenty years before.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
.
Throwaway Daughter tells the dramatic and moving story of Grace Dong-mei Parker, a typical Canadian teenager until the day she witnesses the Tiananmen massacre on television. Horrified, she sets out to explore her Chinese ancestry, only to discover that she was one of the thousands of infant girls abandoned in China since the introduction of the one-child policy, strictly enforced by the Communist government. But Grace was one of the lucky ones, adopted as a baby by a loving Canadian couple.
With the encouragement of her adoptive parents, she studies Chinese and travels back to China in search of her birth mother. She manages to locate the village where she was born, but at first no one is willing to help her. However, Grace never gives up and, finally, she is reunited with her birth mother, discovering through this emotional bond the truth of what happened to her almost twenty years before.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Throwaway Daughter,
By
Ce commentaire est de: Throwaway Daughter (Paperback)
Grace Dong-Mei Parker was adopted from a Chinese orphanage by Canadian parents, and despite their well-meaning efforts, she's adamantly opposed to having anything to do with her Chinese heritage. The sense of identity that language lessons and lunches in Chinatown never accomplish, happens dramatically when she witnesses a news broadcast of the Tiananmen Square massacre, and results in her return to China at the age of twenty to try to track down her birth parents. The circumstances of her birth and abandoment comes out gradually, from several points of view.Despite being nominated for the American Library Association's Best Books for Young Adults, this reads like adult fiction to me, especially with the complexity of the narrative (multiple points of view and timeshifts--but it's not as confusing as it sounds). Adjectives include lyrical, bittersweet and Canadian.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Throwaway Daughter,
Ce commentaire est de: Throwaway Daughter (Paperback)
I found this book to be one of the best I have ever read. What makes this book so great is how it is told from all of the characters perspective. Some books get boring if just told from one character, but in this book it's really interesting seeing how the plot unravels as you read from each characters view. It was so good that when I was first reading it, even though I knew the story wasn't real, I kept forgetting. I was hard to me to grasp that each character was actually written by the same person, that's how well written it was. I just borrowed this book from the library but since it was so great, I plan on buying it now, so I can read it again. I also plan on checking out more works written by the author since I liked this book so much.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
3.6 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews) 3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Throwaway Daughter,
By Elisabeth Hegerat - Published on Amazon.com
Ce commentaire est de: Throwaway Daughter (Paperback)
Grace Dong-Mei Parker was adopted from a Chinese orphanage by Canadian parents, and despite their well-meaning efforts, she's adamantly opposed to having anything to do with her Chinese heritage. The sense of identity that language lessons and lunches in Chinatown never accomplish, happens dramatically when she witnesses a news broadcast of the Tiananmen Square massacre, and results in her return to China at the age of twenty to try to track down her birth parents. The circumstances of her birth and abandoment comes out gradually, from several points of view.Despite being nominated for the American Library Association's Best Books for Young Adults, this reads like adult fiction to me, especially with the complexity of the narrative (multiple points of view and timeshifts--but it's not as confusing as it sounds). Adjectives include lyrical, bittersweet and Canadian. 5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Over-rated,
By Another Voice 99 - Published on Amazon.com
Ce commentaire est de: Throwaway Daughter (Mass Market Paperback)
This book must be read as a fictional story. Unfortunately, many readers will come away thinking that they are now more informed on how international adoption in China results. An analogy would be thinking that "true love" was illustrated through a Harlequin romance novel.As an adoptive mother of two girls from China, I read this book initially with anticipation that this might be a book that I would introduce to them. Unfortunately, it is the author's romanticized, sanitized version of how female infants come to be abandoned by their birth parents and subsequently adopted by foreigners. This book should be read after one reads "A Bitter Leaf in the Wind", the author's autobiography which details how she came to her decision to leave her own 9-year-old daughter to pursue a relationship with a married American man, William Bell (who also had children). Then perhaps one could appreciate that this novel (i.e. Throwaway Daughter) is possibly the author's way of assuaging her own guilt for abandoning her own daughter "for better opportunities." Unfortunately, the opportunity was for the author herself, not her own child. This is quite unlike the situation whereby these foundlings are left so that better opportunities could be had for these children. This book is entertaining in following the path of one searching for oneself through looking for one's roots, but is definitely not meant to be educational about the complex issue of adoption. Read it with this in mind. For more factual account of Chinese adoption, I would recommend "Wanting a Daughter, Needing a Son" by Kay Ann Johnson. 2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
My review,
By Stephanie Wan - Published on Amazon.com
Ce commentaire est de: Throwaway Daughter (Mass Market Paperback)
Dong-Mei also known as Grace Parker, was left on the steps of an orphanage in China. Luckily, a kind family in Canada was looking for another child to add in their family and decided to look for one but it wasn't easy. Lots of orphanages didn't accept the Parkers offer as supposedly, a family couldn't adopt a child if they already have one. When the Parkers finally located the orphanage in China, after lots of paperwork and tons of time, a picture of the baby girl they were adopting was sent to Canada. As Grace adapted to her family in Canada, she always hated the thought of her birth mother. How she had abandoned her, but as she thought of it more and more, she wanted to meet her mother to figure out why.Thus Grace begins her long journey in her teen years across the world to locate her mother. A quest that takes her to China but what she discovers will change her life forever. |
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
