The Star Fisher

Ragina Shearer
5653 Multicultural Children’s and Young Adult Literature
Book Review – Asian Pacific American Literature

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Yep, Laurence. THE STAR FISHER. New York, New York. ISBN 10: 0-688-09365-5

2. PLOT SUMMARY
Papa was a scholar and was supposed to take government exams in 1911, and then write poetry and classics, but the Revolution came and he had to become a businessman which he was not cut out for. “He was always such a dreamer. In his own way, he was always reaching for the stars-first the government exams, then America, and now the laundry.” He believed it was possible to fit in and belong wherever they were. Papa always warned his children to fit in and follow what others do as he always said, “the nail that sticks out gets hammered.” Yet sitting in English class Joan could not be silent she knew the answer and she raised her hand and the question about Romeo, “Juliet is asking why he has to be called Romeo Montague. Why couldn’t he be a Smith?” Her answer was correct, it did not win her friends but she was proud of herself.

The landlady, Miss Lucy, and Mama become friends as she helped Mama learn to bake pies. “Peeking over the lower door, I saw Mama and Miss Lucy in their aprons with their sleeves rolled up and white flour dusting their arms.” Mama entered her pie and at last the town people accepted them. After the pie social when all the people became customers, Papa said, “There really was a town full of dirty clothes for us.”

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS (INCLUDING CULTURAL MARKERS)
This is an excellent book to use as a read aloud for upper elementary and middle grades. It is excellent to use on studies of diversity and hardships of immigrants.

Prejudice prevailed in this small town of West Virginia, just as the man at the station has called them monkeys people, including Joan’s mother held strong prejudices about theatre people. “It’s funny how there are levels and levels of prejudice in the world. The red-faced man hated us for being Chinese; but he would have someone like Bernice as well for being the child of theatrical folks-just as Mama would herself.”

Joan told her sister, Emily a story about a young star fisher girl who was going to be taken off into the sky as a bird someday. Her mother always looked forward to the day she would return to the sky. Joan relates this story to her own feelings as her mother tells her they will return to China someday, a land she has never known. “I thought again of the star fisher’s daughter and the questions she must have asked her mother. ‘Will it be nice there, Mama?’ She patted me clumsily. ‘You’ll like it. You’re just scared…”

The landlady begins helping Mama learn to make pies which begins quiet disastrous, but ends in success at the social everyone loved the pie. Suddenly they were accepted, Bernice entered, rejected by the town members and at the request of the pastor she was accepted too. “The Reverand Bobson put his hand on the woman’s shoulder…Didn’t the Lord himself say, ‘Suffer the little children to come unto me’?” The next day at school girls Joan already knew introduced themselves. When she arrived home the happiness continues, the laundry is now in business. The landlady helps with the taunts of the ill guided and calls in for support for the Laundromat.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT (S)
PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY: “The Lees are greeted instead by verbal jibes and threats painted on their fence, until their remarkable landlady becomes a catalyst for change. The Lees are greeted instead by verbal jibes and threats painted on their fence, until their remarkable landlady becomes a catalyst for change.”
SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: “On the first night in their new home in a small West Virginia town, 15-year-old Joan Lee lulls her little sister to sleep with the story of a magical kingfisher who is held captive in human form by her mortal husband, but who is later helped by her daughter.”

5. CONNECTIONS

Other books by Laurence Yep include
Yep, Laurence. ANGELFISH.ISBN 10: 0-399-23041-6
Yep, Laurence. THE AMAH. ISBN 10: 0-698-11878-2
Yep, Laurence. THE CASE OF THE GOBLIN PEARLS 10: 0-06-440552-4
Yep, Laurence. CHILD OF THE OWL. ISBN 10: 0-06-440336-X