#1 Chick Red 4---agreen24

The book I am reading is Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok. The main character of this book is KIm CHang who moved to New York with her mom from Hong Kong. They moved to America searching for a better life, but instead are greeted with the opposite. Kim and her mom barely speak English which is not helpful when it comes to Kim going to school. She struggles to understand and communicate with others, especially her teacher. After school Kim joins her mom at a clothing factory in Chinatown where there are poor working conditions and poor pay. In Hong Kong, Kim was very smart, and at the top of her class. When she moved to America and experienced trouble with her teacher, she decided that she was going to learn the American way of schoolwork and become top again. She is doing this to one day show people around her that she has earned a place in this country. This is a way that Kim figures out her personal identity. She knows she is smart and she enjoys it too, so if she can use it to help do some good she is willing to try. Another way she figures out her personal identity in a new country is by keeping her traditions from Hong Kong. "For the Chinese New Year, the factory was closed because no Chinese would work on this day...Anything that happened on this day was symbolic of the entire year to come..." (Kwok 82) She and her mother celebrate the best they can together. I think this helps her discover her personal identity because it will allow her to accept the customs and traditions of a new country while also keeping where she came from close to her. 

In the book Strike Zone by Mike Lupica, The main character Nick is 12 years old and is a pitcher for the Blazers a baseball team in Bronx, New York. Nicks parents though came to America from the Dominican Rebublic with work Visas and made the decision to live there forever. Nick's sister Amelia has Lupus a disease that eats away from it's self. Her medical bills makes their parents have to live very tightly with money. The main problem is that Nick's parents are undocumented Immigrants and can get deported at anytime. U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement also known as ICE are not liked by Nick, “ICE, not nice"(13 Lupica). Nick knows ICE Officials can turn his dream upside down on becoming a pitcher in the MLB just with a click of a button. My book is closely related to yours and the Ted Talk because Nick's parents are also not legal immigrants but it differs in which the main character in Nick is actually a U.S citizen because he was born there. Nick has a hard time staying focus with baseball because of the unknown of if his family will ever be kicked out of the U.S. Nick wants to be a baseball player when he grows up but he knows its only an uphill climb from where he is now to become one of the best. 

In The Cooked Seed by Anchee Min, Anchee is an immigrant in the U.S. from communist China in the 70s and 80s. In China, she worked in labor camps and worked in expendable jobs making propaganda films. She and her family suffered from several ailments throughout her life that they had to work through to stay alive, her mother had tuberculosis and her father had stomach cancer for example. She secures a visa by getting accepted to the Chicago institute of art. Once she makes it to America she is forced to work 5 jobs at a time to pay her tuition and stay afloat. She first lives in the dorms with her roommate Takisha. Takisha tries to help Anchee learn English but she mostly just confuses and blames her for her lack of understanding about political issues, “‘Well, it's too complicated to explain.’ ‘Try, Takisha, would you? I want to learn.’ ‘I can't talk to you,’ Takisha said. Strangely, her voice sounded tear-filled. I am sorry, I mean no offense, Takisha. Talk to me, and educate me.’ ‘You wouldn't understand.’” (Min, 57). Anchee carries her intense work ethic and personal ideals with her from China. She struggles to pay off her tuition and make a liveable income even while working 5 jobs. Her employers often exploit her lack of understanding of the workplace in the U.S. and take advantage of her desperation. She doesn't have the time to explore her personal identity. The customs and ideals she brings to the U.S. either hinder her, her intolerance to accepting help from others for fear of punishment or shame for example, or the people around her don't understand her thought process and can't help her express herself, which she finds is extremely isolating.