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SEEING EMILY




BIBLIOGRAPHY
Wong, Joyce. 2005. Seeing Emily. New York: Amulet. ISBN 0810957574.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Seeing Emily is the best of free verse, as it captures the mind of 16-year old Chinese-American Emily. Told in a rich style reminiscent of Sonya Sones, Seeing Emily is the journey of an American teenager grappling with typical teenage angst, albeit compounded by the complexities of growing up in an immigrant family. Her parents squeeze the American dream for all its worth, working tirelessly in their family restaurant, the Golden Palace. They expect the same ambition from their daughter. Through her art, Emily views her world and its pressures. Wong invites her readers along to view Emily’s unique take on the world.

In Seeing Emily, we experience her friendships with Nina and Liz, her blossoming romance with first boyfriend Nick, and her attempts to honor her Asian heritage while finding independence. Are the two mutually exclusive? These are the issues which all teens face ~ how do you find yourself without losing your family? Peppered throughout the book are the conversations of all teen girls. What grade did you get on your paper? How do I know he likes me? Why can’t my parents understand anything? The character might by Chinese-American, but the social issues are universal, particularly in the uber-competitive world of the contemporary American high school.


SPOTLIGHT POEM AND LESSON

This book is appropriate for  grades 6 and up. To introduce this novel-in-verse, I would pull out two stanzaas from the poem Not Calling Alex Huang. In the stanzaas, it sets up Emily’s willingness to lie in order to avoid confrontation with her mother and admission that she failed to follow through. This lie sets up the storyline for the remainder of the book, as Emily learns the powerful traps lies can lay. 

Not Calling Alex Huang
(two-stanzaa excerpt, not consecutive in the poem)

Page 8 excerpt:
I should have called him,
But somehow, every time I though about doing it,
I ended up getting distracted,
Busying myself with something else
Until it was too late to call.

Page 9 excerpt:
Suddenly, anger flared,
Quick as the flames
Licking at the bottom of the wok,
The lie exploded from my mouth,
Startling me.
“I did call him!” I said,
Sounding so self-righteous,
I nearly believed myself.

After reading the excerpt, I would invite kids to share about the power, and danger, of lies. How do they feel when they lie? How do they feel when it backfires and they’re busted? What happens to relationships when one person is caught in a lie? When is it illegal to lie? I would preface the conversation with a disclaimer that they may NOT share names of other people. They can share their story, if they feel comfortable sharing, but no names.




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