Stealing Buddha's Dinner by Bich Minh Nguyen is not a new book (2007), yet it is a different perspective on the immigrant experience. Nguyen is brought to the United States from Vietnam as a very young child and spends her formative years in Grand Rapids, MI with her father, sister, grandmother, step-siblings, and step-mother, who is Hispanic.
Not only is Nguyen a minority, she is part of a blended, inter-racial family. She has a lot to contend with as a child within her own family and the "American" culture that surrounds her from her neighbors to school to television.
Food is a constant theme throughout the book, which not only underscores her ethnic culture - Vietnamese and Hispanic - but highlights what she is not and does not have - "American" like her classmates - Betty Crocker meals, Lil Debbie snacks, Toll House cookies, homemade cupcakes.
Always feeling awkward - the "cool" factor of her step-sister, thick glasses, the "smart" sister, while her sister is the "pretty" one, and just not always sure how to handle her family - Nguyen finds escape in books and the comfort and security of Noi, her grandmother who is always present, calm, and constant.
Nguyen keeps her story moving, though at times the story gets thick with details about TV shows or food. While, at the same time, some additional details could have been added in other chapters.
Experiences, issues, and conflicts that many readers could understand. A nice addition to the immigration story.
BOOKS SAVE LIVES!!!
3 years ago
