The Star Maker - Laurence Yep

The Star Maker tells the story of Artie, a young Chinese American boy growing up in San Francisco during the early 1950s.  The narrator relays that his family lives in Chinatown where all Chinese familys must live.  This story is not so much about the discrimination that Chinese Americans  faced but more about their daily lives in Chinatown - the very ordinary happenings that were typical in a Chinese American family.

The main character, Artie, is the youngest in his family and takes a lot of teasing because of that.  Artie finds an ally in his Uncle Chester.  Uncle Chester was the youngest of his generation and he understands exactly what Artie is going through.  Uncle Chester even agrees to help Artie out of a bind by supplying him with firecrackers for everyone to celebrate Chinese New Year.  Artie was the star maker of the family when everyone set their firecracker off.

I enjoyed learnng about some Chinese traditions and was impressed that Yep included a bibiography at the end so that readers may investigate some of these traditions on their own.