Pauline Chen (1) (1966–)

December was a difficult time of the year for Peiling Wang. The daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, she always felt left out and alone, as Christmas time approached, and all of her neighbors, friends and classmates, in her Ohio town, began to prepare for the holiday. Fantasizing about the perfect American Christmas (and longing to feel like everyone else), Peiling, encouraged by her young and carefree Uncle Samson, convinces her parents to celebrate the holiday, for the very first time. But when, despite all the careful planning and preparation, Christmas isn't quite what she expected, will Peiling conclude that the experiment was a failure...?

This brief children's novel was written by one of the former Chinese professors at Oberlin, my alma mater in Ohio - I was fortunate enough to take a year of Chinese, although Chen lao shi was not one of my instructors - which is part of the reason I picked it up. I found it quite engaging, and thought Pauline Chen ably captured what it feels like to be different, and the simultaneous heartache and blessings that this brings. I liked Peiling herself, as a character, as well as the secondary cast, from Miss Rosenweig (who has also never celebrated Christmas!), to Laura Hamilton, who turns out, despite her annoying qualities, not to be as terrible a person as Peiling first thought. I wouldn't say that Peiling and the Chicken-Fried Christmas was the best middle-grade novel I have read, recently, but I thought it was a very good debut. I hope Pauline Chen will write more for children - I know I would certainly read her books, if she did!… (meer)