Girl in Translation

Girl in Translation
Jean Kwok
ISBN 1101187484

Kimberly Chang is a brilliant, dirt-poor sixth grader, just off the boat from Hong Kong but determined to make it in America. She and her mother
arrive planning to live with family on Staten Island, but they're forced into a roach-infested tenement in one of the worst neighborhoods in Brooklyn.
Kimberly spends her days trying to fit in at school, where she can barely communicate in English but commands perfect scores in math and science;
after school, she pulls second shift helping her mother at a Chinatown sweatshop. Drawing on her own experience in relocation, Kwok weaves a modern immigrant tale with a twist. Overcoming her many hardships, Kimberly learns to excel in both of her worlds. At the factory, she becomes the fastest skirt bagger and meets the love of her life; at school, she scales the heights of academic excellence and begins to move with the popular crowd. But as these two worlds progress on a collision course, Kimberly is forced to make a wrenching choice. Girl in Translation is a gripping, poignant story
of perseverance and success against all odds.