Paper Son: Lee's Journey to America (Tales of Young Americans)

A shameful period of American History not often talked about is the Chinese Exclusion Act where an entire group of people was singled out by national policy to ostracize. Being resourceful, the Chinese found ways around the injustice. This book presents one of the ways in beautifully illustrated and lyrically written historical fiction. It makes for a good classroom resource and a must-read for everyone whether they are of Chinese heritage or not.

Ordering a second copy as we lent the first one and never got it back. I could not believe the then four and five year old would understand or embrace this story but I was wrong. Now five and six they ask for it to be read again and again so I'm now purchasing for them.

Fantastic novel written by my professor here in San Diego. Beautifully written story about Angel Island. I am a teacher and it is the perfect book to accompany any 4th grade curriculum related to California. We even skyped with the author after reading it!

Touching story based in reality. You can feel the struggle of the young boy's journey to come to America, which is beautifully illustrated.

Powerful story, and important.

My grandfather was a paper son. My father and I read it together- we both cried. (The young boy even comes to Angel Island on the same ship as my grandfather did- the Lincoln!) my grandfather rarely discussed his experience, but what he told us (and what we've learned through years of research) is accurately reflected in this book. This book will help me explain our family history to my daughter. I am so thankful that it exists.

I was looking forward to reading this so much but on my Kindle it is so small it's unreadable. And I cannot make the view bigger as it is greyed out. What a waste, unless I get a magnifying glass... Kindle needs to fix this!

I'd never heard of a paper son until I read this book. Young Lee's story taught me how the idea worked, but more important I actually felt the pressure this young boy was under to please his family & hopefully make them proud. As a former librarian I used to look for books like this to create my lessons. Now I share stories like this with my nephew...the only way another young boy can learn about the variety of immigrant journeys here. The authors bring out many other talking points, such as facing fear, cultural differences and trust. "Trust no one" he was told repeatedly, yet his grandmother had stitched into his cap "Trust your heart." And on the last page there's the Angel Island history lesson, the Ellis Island of the West for those entering from the Pacific. Lee's journey to America is a lesson to us all about the challenges immigrants face. Young Lee came at another time, but all immigrants are nervous about their new life in America, yet believe that a better life will be here.