54 pages • 1 hour read
Kelly YangA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Racism is prevalent throughout the novel and in multiple different contexts. When the Wei-Evans family is still in Hong Kong, they notice prejudice against Chinese people from the mainland. This is because COVID-19 was in mainland China at the time, but not in Hong Kong. Julie is Chinese, and this has the family caught between two different cultures while in Hong Kong. This tension demonstrates that prejudice was not something that just occurred in the US during the pandemic.
The Wei-Evans family hopes that they will not experience significant racism in the US, but this proves to not be the case from their earliest times in the country. While they are able to get into the country relatively easily because they are Americans, they experience their first instances of racism when they get an Uber to go to their grandparents’ home from the airport. The Uber driver pulls over when he learns they have come from Asia because he does not want to get COVID-19. His prejudice underscores how pervasive racist fear was directed toward Asian people and people traveling from Asia at the beginning of the pandemic.
By Kelly Yang
5th-6th Grade Historical Fiction
View Collection
7th-8th Grade Historical Fiction
View Collection
Appearance Versus Reality
View Collection
Asian American & Pacific Islander...
View Collection
Books About Race in America
View Collection
Books on Justice & Injustice
View Collection
Books that Teach Empathy
View Collection
Brothers & Sisters
View Collection
Challenging Authority
View Collection
Childhood & Youth
View Collection
Class
View Collection
Class
View Collection
Coming-of-Age Journeys
View Collection
Community
View Collection
Daughters & Sons
View Collection
Diverse Voices (Middle Grade)
View Collection
Earth Day
View Collection
Equality
View Collection
Family
View Collection
Fathers
View Collection
Fear
View Collection
Forgiveness
View Collection
Friendship
View Collection
Guilt
View Collection
Hate & Anger
View Collection
Juvenile Literature
View Collection
Marriage
View Collection
Mothers
View Collection
Nation & Nationalism
View Collection
New York Times Best Sellers
View Collection
Order & Chaos
View Collection
Power
View Collection
Pride & Shame
View Collection
Realistic Fiction (Middle Grade)
View Collection
Safety & Danger
View Collection
School Book List Titles
View Collection
Trust & Doubt
View Collection
Truth & Lies
View Collection
Valentine's Day Reads: The Theme of Love
View Collection