My Chinatown: One Year in Poems by Kam Mak

 Mak, K. (2002) My Chinatown: One year in poems (K. Mak, Illus.). Harper.

This book of poems describes a year in the life of a boy who just immigrated from China to America. With sections separated by the seasons, we watch this young boy slowly become accustomed to his new life and learn to embrace the joys that this new place has to offer. Through the imagery of the language, we can see the world the way the young boy does, sometimes told explicitly while other times hidden in the word choice of the poems. Right from the beginning, we can tell that the boy is not happy to have left his home for America. The first poem gives us the lines, “But it isn’t home,” and “It must be someone else’s luck this year./Not mine.” These lines explicitly tell us that the boy is unhappy to be away from Hong Kong, but there are moments where the imagery speaks for itself as well. This is seen in lines like “…where the English words taste/like metal in my mouth.” Everyone can imagine how unpleasant it would be to have metal in their mouth, even just the imagined taste can evoke a cringe, so it becomes clear that speaking English is an unpleasant experience for this young boy. As we move forward in the book, however, the imagery becomes more comfortable and pleasant, showing us that the boy is getting more comfortable in his new home, slowly finding small joys where he thought there were none. There’s a serene quality to a line like, “Sometimes I fall asleep beside her,/the sound of her work/a lullaby,” and a positive look towards a future in America with the line, “One day I’ll be a part of it,/rowing to the drumbeat…” It is easy to understand that this boy fully comes around to the idea of living in Chinatown at the end because it ends with a joyous “Chinatown,/this is Chinatown!”

While the language takes on a lot by providing emotions through word choice and placement, the realistic oil painted illustrations provide us with a better perspective of the physical aspects of Chinatown that this young boy sees. Because the images are painted so realistically, they could almost be mistaken for photos. They provide the reader with a way to see exactly what the boy is seeing to make him feel his different emotions towards this new home. The images add a whole other layer to the sharing of this new perspective. As readers, we are allowed to see the settings and people that grew on the little boy to make him appreciate and adore his new home. There is care and precision in each illustration, like the top-down image of the young boy and his sister playing a game. The details are immaculate from the texture of the cat’s fur to the intricate drawings on the game pieces. Unless you are very focused on the image, it can easily be mistaken for a photo, giving us a realistic perspective that can be trusted.