Our March title is Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang. Email estaley@tscpl.org for assistance in obtainin g a copy of the current title. \;
\nWe have discussions on the f ourth Tuesday of every month in person or by Zoom.
\nTuesday\, March 26\, 2024\, 7-8 pm Zoom link: https://tscpl.zoom.us/j/8331435942 7?pwd=T76faG513homw57dlYjl8bQLonuENb.1
\nStay updated about Raci al Justice Book Club information including receiving the meeting details a nd Zoom link by \;signing up through the YWCA.
\nMore Abou t the Book
\nIn Chinese\, the word for America\, Mei Guo\, translates directly to &ldquo\;beautiful country.&rdquo\; Yet when seven-y ear-old Qian arrives in New York City in 1994 full of curiosity\, she is o verwhelmed by crushing fear and scarcity. In China\, Qian&rsquo\;s parents were professors\; in America\, her family is "illegal" and it will requir e all the determination and small joys they can muster to survive.
\nIn Chinatown\, Qian&rsquo\;s parents labor in sweatshops. Instead of laug hing at her jokes\, they fight constantly\, taking out the stress of their new life on one another. Shunned by her classmates and teachers for her l imited English\, Qian takes refuge in the library and masters the language through books\, coming to think of The Berenstain Bears as her first Amer ican friends. And where there is delight to be found\, Qian relishes it: h er first bite of gloriously greasy pizza\, weekly "shopping days\," when Q ian finds small treasures in the trash lining Brooklyn&rsquo\;s streets\, and a magical Christmas visit to Rockefeller Center &mdash\; confirmation that the New York City she saw in movies does exist after all.
\nBut then Qian&rsquo\;s headstrong Ma Ma collapses\, revealing an illness that she has kept secret for months for fear of the cost and scrutiny of a doc tor&rsquo\;s visit. As Ba Ba retreats further inward\, Qian has little to hold onto beyond his constant refrain: Whatever happens\, say that you wer e born here\, that you&rsquo\;ve always lived here.
\nInhabiting her childhood perspective with exquisite lyric clarity and unforgettable char m and strength\, Qian Julie Wang has penned an essential American story ab out a family fracturing under the weight of invisibility\, and a girl comi ng of age in the shadows\, who never stops seeking the light.
\nThe moving story of an undocumented child living in poverty in the richest cou ntry in the world &mdash\; an incandescent debut from an astonishing new t alent
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