Dream Soul - Hardcover

Yep, Laurence

3.8

81 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060283890 ISBN 13: 9780060283896

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2000

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All Joan Lee and her younger siblings, Bobby and Emily, want for Christmas in 1927 is to be allowed to celebrate it. Joan longs to be just like everyone else, even if she is Chinese, but this will be the Lees' first Christmas in West Virginia! Miss Lucy, their landlady and friend, innocently invites the family to celebrate Christmas with her. Joan's parents resist at first, but that changes when Papa realizes he can turn it to his advantage. The children can have Christmas, but only if they are good--all the time.

Joan, Bobby, and Emily quickly become aware of how hard this will be as each day brings new temptations of sledding, playing in the snow, and spending time with friends. Joan is particularly intrigued by the glamorous Victoria Barrington and her father, who have a mysterious past and are so unlike her own family. But a crisis forces Joan to gain a new understanding of her parents and her heritage, and she must look to her past in order to help her family before it's too late.

Continuing the story of the Lees begun in The Star Fisher, winner of the Christopher Award and the West Virginia Literary Award, Dream Soul is a touching story of love, loyalty, and the importance of family.

Books for the Teen Age 2001 (NYPL)

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About the Author:

Laurence Yep is the acclaimed author of more than sixty books for young people and a winner of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award. His illustrious list of novels includes the Newbery Honor Books Dragonwings and Dragon's Gate; The Earth Dragon Awakes: The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, a Texas Bluebonnet Award nominee; and The Dragon's Child: A Story of Angel Island, which he cowrote with his niece, Dr. Kathleen S. Yep, and was named a New York Public Library's "One Hundred Titles for Reading and Sharing" and a Bank Street College of Education Best Children's Book.

Mr. Yep grew up in San Francisco, where he was born. He attended Marquette University, graduated from the University of California at Santa Cruz, and received his PhD from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He lives in Pacific Grove, California, with his wife, the writer Joanne Ryder.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 4-8-As the eldest child of stern Chinese immigrant parents, 15-year-old Joanie Lee is held strictly accountable for her high-spirited younger siblings. Expected to master her American school lessons and assist in the family's laborious post-World War I laundry, Joanie finds that her life brightens when their landlady wrings a promise to celebrate Christmas from the reluctant Mr. Lee, who adds the provision that the children must be perfect during the remaining weeks, a seemingly impossible task. Recent arrivals, the aristocratic Victoria Barrington and her charming father, provide some fun and friendship. Problems arise, however, when long workdays and the cold West Virginia winter make the scholarly Mr. Lee seriously ill. Facing the crisis with what she once passively rejected, Joanie fuses the wisdom of Chinese folklore with her own American grit to find her way. Details of landscape, climate, and period are quite evocative. Major characters are fully developed. Even the minor figures are interesting. Joanie's evolution in understanding the strength, love, and culture with which her parents have always graced her is warming. Although the cultural contrasts between East and West are reminiscent of Linda Crew's Children of the River (Laurel Leaf, 1991), Yep's lovingly crafted offering is for younger readers and has its own wonderful perspective.
Cindy Darling Codell, Clark Middle School, Winchester, KY
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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