Girl in Translation by Mrs Wry https://padlet.com/ewry/hr53s6zhnk21 en-us 2017-12-21 00:13:26 UTC 2026-01-31 00:42:06 UTC hello@padlet.com Summary: ewry https://padlet.com/ewry/hr53s6zhnk21/wish/217617746 When Kimberly Chang and her mother emigrate from Hong Kong to Brooklyn squalor, she quickly begins a secret double life: exceptional schoolgirl during the day, Chinatown sweatshop worker in the evenings. Disguising the more difficult truths of her life like the staggering degree of her poverty, the weight of her family’s future resting on her shoulders, or her secret love for a factory boy who shares none of her talent or ambition. Kimberly learns to constantly translate not just her language but herself back and forth between the worlds she straddles.

Through Kimberly’s story, author Jean Kwok, who also emigrated from Hong Kong as a young girl, brings to the page the lives of countless immigrants who are caught between the pressure to succeed in America, their duty to their family, and their own personal desires, exposing a world that we rarely hear about.

]]> 2017-12-21 00:15:49 UTC https://padlet.com/ewry/hr53s6zhnk21/wish/217617746 Excerpt: ewry https://padlet.com/ewry/hr53s6zhnk21/wish/217617778 Over dinner, Aunt Paula wanted to know all of my standardized test scores and how exactly I had managed to get into Harrison Prep.  I gave her a general impression of what had happened, leaving out most of the details. “And what are your grades like, now that you’re at such an exclusive school?” she asked.  I stared at my bowl of rice. “The classes aren’t so easy.” “Really? For such a smart girl?”  “I got a hundred on my last English test,” Nelson interjected.  “What did you get?” I had just put a lichee nut in my mouth, and I bit down so hard on my chopsticks I could feel my teeth imprint on the wood.  “Nelson, we don’t even go to the same school.” “I know. So what did you get?” he said.  I was ashamed but I had to be honest. “A sixty-seven.” “Aaah.” Aunt Paula breathed out.  There was a relief and satisfaction in her sigh.

]]> 2017-12-21 00:16:43 UTC https://padlet.com/ewry/hr53s6zhnk21/wish/217617778 ewry https://padlet.com/ewry/hr53s6zhnk21/wish/217617925 2017-12-21 00:20:38 UTC https://padlet.com/ewry/hr53s6zhnk21/wish/217617925 ewry https://padlet.com/ewry/hr53s6zhnk21/wish/217617998 2017-12-21 00:22:35 UTC https://padlet.com/ewry/hr53s6zhnk21/wish/217617998