At the BN Teen blog, Madeline Moore tagged
seven YA novels that take on the journey from high school to college, including:
American Panda, by Gloria Chao
Mei is a seventeen-year-old Asian American girl attending MIT, majoring in biology, and on track to become a highly paid doctor. By her parents’ standard she’s successful, and that means she should be happy—right? Except Mei secretly prefers ballet slippers to bedpans, and dreams of owning a dance studio, not a doctorate. So it seems she must make a choice: her parent’s happiness, or her own. American Panda gives me feels similar to those I imagine I’d experience on hugging a panda: heartfelt and humorous. It’s a stunning exploration of identity, as Mei’s experiences her first year of independence in the modern world while trying to live a life defined by respect for ancient Taiwanese tradition. Throughout the novel Mei walks a line between wanting to be her parent’s perfect daughter and having the heart to fight for her right to be happy. Chao’s story of accepting and loving who you are is incredibly important, and I hope many other teens will find solace and strength in Mei.
Read about
another entry on the list.
The Page 69 Test: American Panda.
--Marshal Zeringue
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