In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson
I remember the piece of Asian American literature that I read. I was probably in 4th or 5th grade when I first read “In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson,” by Betty Bao Lord. In it, a little girl whose American name is Shirley Temple Wong adjusts to life with her family in Brooklyn, NY in the 1940s
Shirley’s first outing in New York by herself was to go to the store to buy “Rucky Strikes.” At that point in my life, I had no idea that native Chinese speakers often mixed up Rs and Ls. And I also had no idea what Rucky Strikes were, nor did I know what Lucky Strikes were. So I was really confused about this for a really really long time.
And at the end of the book, after Shirley has become a die hard Dodgers fan, she gets to meet Jackie Robinson and give him the key to her school. I remember that reading this book, I felt like it was a book that was more about me, than say “Little House on the Prairie” or “Ramona the Pest.” It was cool to read about the Dodgers and Brooklyn - I remember driving by Dodger Stadium when we went to Brooklyn to visit my grandparents. It was so meaningful to me to finally read a story that that resonated so much with my family’s experiences. To recognize the meaning of being an outsider, to have to work extra hard to find your place, and to finally find connections with people who understand that… I can only hope that everyone finds that somewhere - on a blog, in a book, in a song.
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that was the first asian american book i ever read too! probably in 3rd or 4th grade. got it from the town library. i was totally blown away that there could actually be a book about a chinese american girl, because i had never seen one before.