Seeing Emily by Joyce Lee Wong

Here is a digital trailer for SEEING EMILY created by graduate student Kara Angell. It's available on YouTube here.


And here is a readers guide for SEEING EMILY created by graduate student Dana Brewster.

Bibliography
Wong, Joyce. Seeing Emily . New York: Amulet Books, 2005.
ISBN: 0810957574

Recommended Grade Levels: 6~9

Summary
Expectations are high for Emily Wu. Like most teenagers, Emily’s parents expect her to study hard and make good grades, work in the family restaurant and remember how to conduct herself. Her behavior and work ethic is grounded in the teachings of her Chinese parents who immigrated to the United States. Growing up somewhat isolated from other Chinese-Americans, Emily begins to struggle with balancing the expectations of her parents and her own desires. When a new boy moves to town and shows an interest in her, Emily begins to be secretive and defiant of her parents. However, through her relationship with the boy, Nick, Emily begins to better understand herself and her parents. She also learns to find her way as a Chinese-American and how she can blend the expectations of her parents with her own plans for her future.

Review Excerpts
“In free verse, 16-year-old Emily Wu, a talented artist, describes her daily life as she interacts with her Chinese immigrant parents; with her best friends, Nina and Liz; and with her first boyfriend, Nick. In the process, she lies to her parents, experiments with makeup, and, little by little, loses her values. Readers will smell the aromas of the traditional dishes that her mother cooks, see the vibrant colors of the mural she paints, and relate to the discussions she and her friends have about grades, parents, and boys. They will also sense Baba and Mama's concern when they decide to send Emily to visit her aunt in Taiwan, where she comes to the realization that she can be both Chinese and American. Rich in language and imagery, Seeing Emily is a good choice for fiction collections.” - School Library Journal

“Joyce Lee Wong's dazzling debut addresses the complexities of the contemporary Asian American experience, the pressures of American high school, and the age-old clash between teens and parents. This touching novel takes readers on a journey in which parents, peers and readers ultimately find new ways of seeing Emily. - GoodReads

“In a highly visual, eloquently wrought first novel, Wong conveys a Chinese-American girl's coming of age. In free verse, narrator Emily, a blossoming artist, expresses her observations of loved ones (her concerned mother and father; her two best friends, Nina and Liz) and familiar places (like the Golden Palace restaurant her parents own).” - Publisher’s Weekly

Awards/Honors Received
International Reading Association Lee Bennett Hopkins Promising Poet Award, 2007
Rhode Island Teen Book Award

Questions to Ask Before Reading
Discussion points for Pre-Reading
~ Ask students if they have ever done anything they knew their parents would
disapprove of. Were they openly defiant or secretive about it?
~ Do any of the students have parents who were born in another country? Are they resistant to the student acting ‘American’.
~ Have they ever made friends with someone they knew their parents would disapproveof?

Introducing Free Verse Poetry
~ Free verse poetry is free from the constraints of line length, rhythms, and rhyming patterns. It is used to create an intimate picture of thoughts, feelings, and motivations.
~ Free verse is not prose. It has patterns and is broken into stanzas.
~ There is a lot of imagery and figurative language present. Students should be familiar with how to identify these forms of writing before reading Seeing Emily.

Curriculum Connections
Character Analysis/Writing
~ Create a character map of Emily. Identify her feelings, behaviors, personality traits, and a physical description. Try to identify reasons for her behaviors.
~ Compare the characters of Nick and Alex. How do Emily’s feelings for each of these boys change over the course of the story?

English
~ Choose a passage from the book where Emily describes an animal in the mural and identify the figurative language used to describe the animal. What do you learn about the animal from the author’s writing?

Art
~ Using magazines and online artwork, students create individual collages that reflect their personality and any struggles they are going through.

Social Studies
~ Identify the cultural values Emily’s parents possess that deal with her relationships and her behavior as a teenage girl. Compare them to your own. What are the differences? Similarities?
~Where does Emily travel to? Where is this in relation to her home in Richmond? Find descriptors of the location in the text.
~ Study the word ‘geisha’. How does Nick’s use of the word affect Emily? Is her reaction positive or negative? Support your answer using text passages. What does Nick’s use of this word reveal about his true feelings for Emily?

Relevant Web Sites
Asian-American Literature
http://www.yourlibrary.ws/ya_webpage/ritba/ritba07/emily.htm
~ Rhode Island Teen Book Award - Discussion Module
http://www.papertigers.org/
~ Resources for books about/from the Pacific Rim and South Asia for students.
http://www.shens.com/
~ Multicultural children’s literature publisher.
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3757
~ Scholastic article How to Choose the Best Multicultural Books. Includes a section on
Asian-American Literature.
http://asianpacificheritage.gov/
~ Resource paying tribute to Asians and Pacific Islanders who have contributed to the
development of America.

Related Books
Na, An. A step from heaven. Asheville, N.C.: Front Street, 2001.

Namioka, Lensey. An ocean apart, a world away: A novel. New York, NY: Laurel-Leaf, 2003.

Gallo, Donald R. First crossing: stories about teen immigrants. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press, 2007.

Gillan, Maria M., and Jennifer Gillan. Growing up ethnic in America: Contemporary fiction about learning to be American. New York: Penguin Books, 1999.

Tan, Amy. The kitchen god's wife. New York: Penguin, 2006.

Yang, Gene Luen, and Lark Pien. American born Chinese. New York: Square Fish, 2009.

About the Author
Joyce Lee Wong is a second-generation Chinese American. After attending college in Taiwan, her parents came to graduate school in America where they met and married. They moved to Virginia where Joyce was born. In addition to being an author, Joyce Lee Wong is a lawyer educated at the University of Virginia School of Law and a teacher. Among her favorite Asian American young adult books are the titles Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston, Shizuko’s Daughter by Kyoko Mori, and Janet Wong’s Behind the Wheel. Joyce Lee Wong currently lives in Los Angeles where she feels fortunate to be able to participate in Asian-American activities, some specifically related to Taiwanese-American culture.