Yep is a serious and driven narrator. The story of his life is relentless in the details. Just as you are absorbing one story or part of his life he is moving on to the next thing you need to know. The result is that cute stories and anecdotes are overpowered by the overwhelming pace and sheer quantity of information.
Yep grew up in San Francisco, but not in Chinatown. His neighborhood was less homogeneous and it seems, a lot less safe. As new housing projects were built his father’s store experience increased gang interference. Living outside of Chinatown also separated Yep from his community heightening his feeling of being an outsider.
Some chapters are much better than others. Doubtless many readers will sympathize with his stories about his embarrassing grandmother and his turns as a reasonably incompetent Catholic altar-boy are good as well. The true gems to be pulled from The Lost Garden are Yep’s experiences as a reader and writer. These are the the bits that would inspire and explain to the young audience what is necessary. He talks about his passion for reading and how his reading preferences changed and evolved (something that would be really fun to have middle school students try using their own life). Yep even talks a little about the process of researching an historical novel. Best of all, he shares that you must write what you know and what you love and outlines how he took people and experiences from his own life to write his own novels.
Given the density, reading level and violence I would say this would be best for middle school and up. If you pulled carefully chosen selections for students to read, you could probably go down to fifth, maybe lower than that if you are planning to read aloud the sections rather than have students do it.
Good for: Try pulling selections from this to use for writing instruction and to jumpstart discussions in class.
Hmm…midget wrestling on television is mentioned.
Sex, Nudity, Dating – A laundry line has boxer shorts pinned to it. He mentions pregnant women’s food cravings. There are topless clubs in his neighborhood and he describes a few of the acts. His friends tell dirty jokes (we don’t know what they are.)
Profanity – “gook” to refer to Asians. “hell,” in the context “pits of hell”.
Death, Violence and Gore – Yep mentions his father’s death. An accident with a bedspring poked a hole in his father’s cheek. His father would shock people by letting water go out the hole when he drank (until the wound healed). His father was beaten up by other kids when he first arrived from China. Laurence is named after a saint his brother was studying in school. The saint was martyred by being roasted on a spit. His brother used to shoot him with ping-pong balls. A customer’s husband had attacked her with a kitchen knife in front of their children and then thrown the woman out the window. He compares a beloved car being stripped and sold for parts to a puppy being sent to a butcher. His father’s legs had problems from standing a lot. A vein tore and blood gushed; he needed surgery. He mentions that Mark Twain had contemplated suicide. A gang broke into their store and when one member was caught, they told Yep’s father that an older brother would return with a gun. He has a toy rifle. Some store owners had guns. A man tells would-be robbers that he’ll bust their heads. A man fell out his bedroom windows a full story to the ground (he was okay). A photo shows Yep and a girl holding water pistols. Yep and a friend are threatened by boys with a knife. He says that a teacher seemed like a witch who liked to beat children. There were fist fights between foreign-born Chinese and American-born Chinese. Yep tells of writing about a murder and having a family member help him plan the fictional murder. A boy is hit in the eye with a knife and has an eye transplant (do you call it a transplant with an eye?) A teacher brags about killing “gooks” in Korea. A story is told about a bomber crew that died. A teacher flash froze a goldfish and threw it against a wall to show students how it would shatter. Yep and classmates used to create harmless explosions with chemicals; he does refer to these as “bombs.”
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – The store sells beer, wine and liquor. A customer used to come in drunk. A man smokes cigars. On Halloween children would surround drunks coming out of a bar and yell trick-or-treat hoping the drunks would give them money. A teacher smoked cigarettes. An old lady who runs the switchboard drinks whiskey.
Frightening or Intense Things – Their car is stolen and Yep tells about burglaries to local stores. He talks a lot about how the gangs came in and stole things. He and his friends are bullied, called names and spat on. His grandparents lived in an area where the Ku Klux Klan was active. His father and a friend were once refused service at a whites-only restaurant. Yep suffered from asthma. A chemistry teacher accidentally causes explosions.
