The Secret Voice of Gina Zhang (Ag Fiction (American Girl)) - Softcover

Yang, Dori Jones

4.11

119 ratings by Goodreads

9781584852032: The Secret Voice of Gina Zhang (Ag Fiction (American Girl))

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1584852038 ISBN 13: 9781584852032

Publisher: Amer Girl Pub, 2000

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Jinna Zhang is a bright, thoughtful, and imaginative twelve-year-old Chinese girl, but when she is overcome by shyness at her new American school, she loses her ability to speak and retreats into an inner fairytale world. Simultaneous.

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From the Author:

I was inspired to write this book when I volunteered as a classroom mentor at an elementary school in Seattle. I helped a boy and a girl who had recently arrived from China, sitting by them and making sure they understood what they teacher expected of them. Most immigrant children from China learn English quickly, so I decided my character needed to have another, deeper problem. I read an article about "selective mutism" and did research on it; that is why Gina has no voice in the classroom. This book also includes a section where a bully picks on a girl in a wheelchair and Gina intervenes. Some schools have assigned it as part of their anti-bullying program. The Secret Voice of Gina Zhang was originally published in 2000 by Pleasant Publications Company. This reprint was published in 2011 by East West Insights.

From the Back Cover:

She thought again about the tightness in her throat and wondered if something was wrong with her. She hadn't simply refused to speak at school. She couldn't speak . . . Jinna has always been shy, but when her family moves from China to America, she vows to be the new "Gina" - brave, confident, and quick to learn English. If only her throat would cooperate.Everyone is frustrated by Gina's silence except Priscilla, a girl with her own need for understanding. Gina wants to trust her, but can she let Priscilla in on her biggest secret, the private fairy-tale world inside her head?Winner of the 2000 Pleasant T. Rowland Prize for Fiction for Girlsand the Skipping Stones Honor Award, 2001

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