| Booktalk
#1
An easy to read culturally
authentic book. A subject I knew about, but was very intriguing.
Your students will like this especially your Chinese girls students. What
would it be like to have your feet bound? A tradition done for over
1000 years. What if you went against your culture and decided you
absolutely would not do it. That is exactly what Ailin decides to
do. In turn this changes her Upper-class life in early 20th century China.
To find out about this tradition and what happens to Ailin you must read
"Ties That Bind, Ties That Break" by Lensey Namioka.
This was a fairly quick read
and very interesting. I think this is a well kept secret. (Karen
Womack <kwomack7@yahoo.com>)
Booktalk #2
Headstrong Third Sister of
the Tao family, Ailin, refuses to have her feet bound. In 1911, the painful
and crippling custom was expected of well bred young Chinese gentlewomen,
who would then marry well, bear sons, and idle away their final years.
Because Ailin insists on being able to run freely, the more traditional
family of the young boy to whom she would have been married abruptly breaks
off their engagement. Ailin's loving father, who senses that Ailin will
have to care for herself one day, sends her to school. However, her
father's health is fragile, and when he passes away, the new family patriarch
is Ailin's less tolerant Big Uncle, who withdraws Ailin from school. Is
Ailin's future to be only a menial servant or perhaps a peasant's wife?
Can Ailin forge her own destiny, one in which she meets the future without
having to deform her own body? (Jeannie Bellavance bellavance@erols.com
for Pennsylvania
Young Reader's Choice Awards) |
