English Book Review

(B-5) Co, Miko Johnson O.

February 19, 2016

Gr. 11-STEM-Luke

Mr. Sacolles

Passion Twists Fate

A love story? A fairy tale? What is Chinese Cinderella all about? A self-written
autobiography published in 1999 by Adeline Yen Mah is a story about Adeline as she passes
through different stages in life with love and hatred, acceptance and disappointments, a story
about Adeline encompassing bullying, loneliness and other more grieving trials in her life. Apart
from her sorrowful childhood unappreciated and unloved especially by her parents, the
unexpected death encounters along the way of the things she loves the most kept on piling up
adding sadness to her life. Nevertheless, through constant determination, passion and untiring
sacrifices, Adeline's life soon had a twist of fate, and through her intellect, endurance and
strength, finally had turned out to be a dream come true. That story is what Chinese Cinderella is
all about.

Adeline Yen Mah, or known as " " in Chinese, was an anesthesiologist at

Western Anaheim Community Hospital. In 1997, after her first novel, Falling Leaves, came out
as a huge success, she decided to continue her writing career and later published her second
novel, Chinese Cinderella, which was also a success along with her first novel selling over a
million copies worldwide and was even translated into 22 different languages. Her works earned
her to receive the Children's Literature Council of Southern California in 2000 for Compelling
Autobiography and the Lamplighter's Award from National Christian School Association in 2002
for Contribution to Exceptional Children's Literature.

Adeline Yen Mah undoubtedly proved her awards through the writing of Chinese
Cinderella, a narrative story written in a first person perspective. First of all, the title itself is
suited to the main character as a majority of similarities can be observed between the Disney
Cinderella story and the Chinese Cinderella story that was compared to Adeline herself. A life
filled with trials but eventually triumph indeed.

In a macro perspective, the author successfully had wise choice of words especially new
vocabularies such as "consulate" and "impish" that are helpful especially to young readers; the
story includes several common Chinese words as well that can serve as an initial motivation to
further expound one's Chinese vocabulary. Focusing on the theme of perseverance, the story did
not fail to example Adeline and her self-determination despite all the opposing negativities she
faced through hard work especially in her studies. The story's goal to express an unwanted

daughter's battle with self-worth as she has but few reasons to be a strong woman in the eyes of
people is also so evident and felt in most chapters that being emotional and empathizing with
Adeline is almost always catching to the heart and is inevitable. My most favorite part would be
the most emotional one as well which is the death of Adeline's Precious Little Treasure. Truly
enough, Adeline's reactions are certainly moving and undeniably touching. I can also consider
these things as the book's strengths, for being able to use simple yet powerful-to-the-heart words
making the book itself effective to its readers.

Chinese Cinderella also observes a chronological order as the continuous reading of each
chapter shows the development of herself from a young daughter to a grown teen as she lives her
life year after year and at the same time the bombardment of certain happenings that come
sudden to her notice. However, the book exhibits its weaknesses at the same time for being a
fragmented story. From one chapter to another, or even within a chapter itself, although the
whole text was written according to the subsequent timeline of events of her life, some parts of
the story seem to jump to another time period so sudden that at times it confuses the readers due
to the lack of proper use of transition markers, especially when the target readers are readers of
the younger generations. On the other hand, as one reaches the end of the story, one will also
notice the composition of an abrupt ending especially without knowing what happened to the
other characters.

In addition, the cover of the book depicts a somewhat unappealing layout especially when
it comes to the placement of designs, the font of the title, and the single choice of a plain color.
Along with the environmental and social changes occurring in the 21st century, children and
even some adults prefer images with modern technological modifications and combinations of
multiple attractive colors.

Despite the said drawbacks of the book in appeal, coherence and timeliness, I can still say
that the book will still move its readers into the story, being able to imagine the exact happening
of an event for its spatial descriptions. Surely, readers will expect being emotional towards
Adeline's life not only with what she goes through, but how she also structured her words in the
book with continuity of heartfelt emotions. Readers will certainly love reading Chinese
Cinderella for its direct contact with whoever holds the book. With these, I rate this book, in a
scale of 1 to 10, 8 for its uniqueness, simplicity and powerful text, and I would like to
recommend this book specifically to the youth experiencing pain and hopelessness in life, for
this book has a way of empowering people who think they are at their wit's ends. Furthermore,
not only does the book narrate an unwanted girl's journey in life, but the story also depicts
historical events, wars and social dispositions of people in China during the mid-years of the
20th century.

It is truly hard to describe the effects of the words said in Chinese Cinderella to the
readers without a tint of spoil. To sum everything up, Chinese Cinderella is not just about
someone's life story. Love, hate, family, history, folklore, whichever of these you might be
looking for, you will surely find them all in Adeline's Chinese Cinderella story.