My Chinatown

My Chinatown

Written and Illustrated by: Kam Mak
Genre: Multicultural 
Grades: 2-5
Awards: None

This book follows a boy that moved to New York's Chinatown from Hong Kong with his family. Every couple of pages, he talks about each season and he does. In the Winter, the New Year has passed and there are pieces of red paper along the streets of Chinatown. The boy is in the market with his mother and they see tons of piles of kumquats. These kumquats reminds the boy of his grandmother back in China and how she pickled them in a certain way. The boy's mother asks a fortune teller of her son's fortune, and it seems that it will be a good year of luck, happiness, and surprises, but the boy doesn't seem to happy as he misses his real home. 

In the Spring, the boy watches a cobbler that works on shoes every day. The boy admires the craftsman, but he reminds the boy that he is lucky to be here and attend a school, unlike him. The boy believes that the only thing that school does to him is leave a sour taste in his mouth as it is difficult to speak in English. One day, the boy's father came home with the boy's favorite game back in Hong Kong, and it made him feel like he was back home. 

In the Summer, the boy keeps company with his mother while she sews on a machine. The boy talks about the beautiful dragon boats on the Queens lake and how there are drums rowing to the beat of the sound. One day, the boy from his window can smell food from the street and people talking Chinese and English, while playing mah-jongg. He sees his neighbor, Nai-Wen, and she convinces him to go out and play with other kids a game called, kick-the-can, his favorite American game. 

In the Fall, the boy is excited to celebrate the Moon festival. His family is up on their roof, lighting lanterns and setting them free, just like his neighbors around him. It is Winter once again, the boy uses his pocket money to buy delicious street food, like fish balls. It is New Years again and there are sweet rice cakes, red envelopes with money in it, drums in the streets, and more. The boy is glad to be living here, in Chinatown.


I really enjoyed reading this book as it reminded me of our own Chinatown and Chinese community here. This book would be a great addition in everyone's classroom library. This book would be good for second to fifth graders. A way to incorporate this book is by having your students celebrate their own culture and research/talk about any traditions that they do all year long, and they can explain this to their classmates.