Trailer Tuesday: American Born Chinese
American Born Chinese broke new ground when it became the first graphic novel be nominated for the US National Book Award and also the first to win the Michael L. Printz Award in 2007.
It skilfully intertwines the legend of the Monkey King with a story of immigration and cultural heritage, and speaks to all who have struggled with identity and belonging with a relevance far beyond just the US experience. The contribution of colourist Lark Pien to the extrardinary look and feel of this book should not be overlooked.
Dig deeper
The creator
- Humble Comics, the website of Gene Luen Yang
- Gene Luen Yan’s blog
- Biography (Wikipedia)
- Author profile (by Dr Agatha Taomina, Northern Virginia Community College)
The text
- Some pages from the novel (FirstSecond website)
- Wikipedia article (like the others we have use for TrailerTuesday, this needs work)
- Gene Luen Yang and others talk about the novel (YouTube)
Reviews
- Fiction Focus
- Publishers Weekly (scroll right down to Comics)
- New York Times
- A collation of reviews from FirstSecond
Interviews with Gene Yang
- Origins of American Born Chinese (FirstSecond)
- School Library Journal
- Audio slideshow interview from National Public Radio (with images from the text)
- Asia Pacific Arts : The Second Life of Gene Yang
- Kartika
- The Trades
- The Daily Cross-Hatch interview, Part One and Part Two
- Speech and reading at Penn State University (February 2009) as part of the university’s Graphic Novelists series (YouTube)
- Sandbox
- Asian-American Graphic Novelist Turns Life into Comics (America.gov)
Awards
- Winner – Michael L. Printz Award 2007
- Winner – Best Graphic Album, Eisner Awards 2007
- Finalist – National Book Awards 2007
- Winner – Best Colorist to Lark Pien, Harvey Awards 2007
- American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults Top Ten List 2007
- YALSA Great Graphic Novel for Teens, Top Ten List 2007
- New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age, 2007
- Winner – Graphic Novel. Cybils Awards 2006
- Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year: Graphic Novels 2006
- School Library Journal Best Books of the Year 2006
Read More
- Grappling with Graphic Novels. Special Feature, Fiction Focus Vol 19 (2), 2005
- Not Just for Kids, Not Just for Fun : Graphic Novel Update. Feature Article, Fiction Focus, vol. 22 (3), 2008
- An annotated list of graphic novels from the CMIS Resource Bank
- Enticing Teenagers into the Library (Clare Snowball’s PhD research project on graphic novels)
- Monkey Kingdom – Gene Yang’s dedication to the Monkey King
- Comics in Education – Gene Yang’s online version of his MEd proposal at California State University
- Scott McCloud’s blog, Good Morning, Comics
- Comics in the Classroom (University of North Carolina)
