Earthquake
By Milly Lee; Yangsook Choi (Illustrator)
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), Paperback, 9780374419462, 32pp.)
Publication Date: February 21, 2006
Other Editions of This Title: Hardcover (August 2001)
Categories: Historical - United States - 20th Century, Nature & the Natural World - General, People & Places - United States - Asian American
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This morning the earth shook
and threw us from our beds.
We were not hurt, just stunned.
Drawers spilled, dishes crashed,
pots and pans clanged as
they fell.
Ancestral portraits flew off
the walls.
Milly Lee's mother was eight years old in 1906, when San Francisco was shaken by a powerful earthquake. Buildings fell, fires flared, and the city burned for several days.
This is the stirring story of one Chinese American family who had to leave their home in Chinatown on that early morning to join hundreds of other refugees making their way to safety.
MILLY LEE and YANGSOOK CHOI also collaborated on Nim
and the War Effort, an ALA Notable Book. Ms. Lee lives in
Sonoma County, California. Ms. Choi lives in New York City.
"A good way to introduce the youngest of readers to a calamitous event . . . The illustrations' sculptured forms and geometric shapes make a pattern of stability against dark vistas of smoke, fire, and destruction . . . Enabling young readers to take in the scene and still find reassurance and comfort." -Kirkus Reviews
“A good book to use in introducing a unit about earthquakes
and their effects on people and the land. The Author’s Note
provides additional background to the story.” – Library Talk
“Yangsook Choi captures the depth of Lee’s family memories
through her beautifully painted imagery . . . It is reassuring for
children to understand that though natural disasters occur,
cities and families are rebuilt and reborn.” – Pacific Reader:
An Asian Pacific North American Review of Books
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