Lovin' Literature!

Yep, Laurence. Angelfish. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2001. 

Robin, a half Chinese, a half American ballet dancer just landed the dream role of Beauty for the Beauty and the Beast segment of her recital.  On her way home, she is playing around with her friends and accidentally breaks a store window.  It is then that Robin meets her real-life beast Mr. Cao who agrees to let Robin work to pay off the cost of the window.  Laurence Yep parallels Robin’s ballet story of Beauty and the Beast together with her real experiences with Mr. Cao.  She learns that Mr. Cao was a famous ballet dancer in China during the Cultural Revolution.  Readers are enlightened to the horrors of the Red Guard, young people who humiliated, mutilated, and even killed “offenders” (politicians, teachers, artists, and scientists).  Mr. Cao resembles the beast in more ways than simply being short-tempered and mean.  Readers will discover that Mr. Cao is “imprisoned” by the debt he owes to his family in the same way the beast was imprisoned by a spell that changed him into the Beast.  Robin plays that part of Beauty throughout the book by practicing her part in the ballet and by trying release Mr. Cao from his prison by asking for his help with the recital.  Yep takes readers through many emotions in Angelfish.  Readers will laugh at the subtle humor sprinkled throughout the text.  For instance, when Robin’s ballet teacher comes to the fish store to convince Mr. Cao to work on the recital, Mr. Cao makes his usual beast-like comments to her.  He continually tells her leave.  Robin explains to Madame that he is rude to everyone, but Madame will not back down.  “You do not now what rude is until you have tried to order a sandwich from a Leningrad waiter.  And I always got my sandwich.”  Readers will cry when they discover what happened to Mr. Cao and why he now walks with a limp.  Mr. Cao’s relationship with the angelfish helps readers feel compassion for a seemingly mean-spirited, old man.  Readers will appreciate the round characters (real and life-like) and the situations in which they are placed (a Chinese matchmaker, the gossip chains in Chinatown, and the history and culture behind the characters and the setting).