Book Review: Homesick

Homesick: My Own Story
by Jean Fritz

This is sort of a strange little book.

As you might guess by the title, this children's award winner is a memoir. Jean presents herself as a 10 year old American girl living in China in the early part of the 20th century. She was actually born in China to American aid workers. And though she's lived her young life entirely with the Chinese, she remains a foreigner. The stories her parents have told her about the United States, along with the letters from her grandmother in Pennsylvania, have Jean feeling homesick for a land she's never seen.

From this book you do get a sense of China in the 1920s. You feel the unrest between the foreign nationals with the native servants and local people they work among. You get a sense of the privilege that these families expect and receive. You get a sense that Jean lived among the Chinese, but was not of them.

There were some nice details of her life ... from picnics on the Great Wall to holidays in the foreigners compound, from the mixture of nationalities of children at Jean's British school to her solo trips into the strictly Chinese areas of town and her reception by the residents there. Jean had a particular fascination with the Yangtze River, so had some nice details about spending time near the river. Then there was a tragic and silenced part of the story about the loss of Jean's infant sister.

Jean and her family are more-or-less forced to leave China in 1927 due to strikes and anti-foreign demonstrations in Hankow, near where Jean and her family lived. The revolution that changed Chinese government soon followed.

The book continues as Jean and her family travel across the Pacific and enter the United States through San Francisco, then the trek across the country to Washington, PA where her dad grew up. Finally the day arrived when Jean got to meet in person the grandmother she already loved through letters.

The last part of the book is, I suppose, a different kind of fish-out-of-water story. It's about how Jean begins to learn to fit into this new American life. It's not only about living in a new country, but about dispelling myths kids in the US had about what life is like in China. It's about learning to dress right and fit in at her new school. It's about the onset of adolescence and the confusion that comes learning to grow into that part of life.

It isn't easy for our girl Jean.

In the end, though, it's a book about being accepted -- especially by her grandmother. Tough as the transition is, the love and laughter Jean shares with her grandmother helps smooth out the rough edges.

So why did I read it? I had this book in my collection of Newbury Award winners, but had never read it. It received a medal as a Newbury Honor book in 1983. Plus, I have a soft spot in my heart for memoirs and biographies.

But I did find it sort of an odd book because, like real life, it doesn't have a tidy beginning and ending. In addition, it's the memories of a 10 year old girl with all the curiosities of things that are important to 10 year olds. Some of the memories blossom in full color, while other memories resemble pen and ink sketches.

Overall, this children's book was a nice diversion, but I don't know that the story is memorable for me.


3 stars