Eureka

Gr 5 Up–Acclaimed poet Chang (With My Back to the World) takes readers to 1884 California, where 12-year-old Mei Mei is being forced to leave San Francisco to protect her from kidnapping. Her family came to the United States from Canton, China, in 1875 looking for a better life and to escape starvation and wars, but their new home is now proving dangerous as well. They owe money to the brokers who organized their passage from China, and Mei Mei herself is seen as potential payment for the debt. However, when Mei Mei travels alone to her new home in Eureka, CA, life is not as idyllic as her parents had hoped. She is forced to work as a kitchen helper in a rich family’s home, where she is treated poorly by everyone except the daughter of the family, and the aunt and uncle tasked with her care are not loving and kind. This story is based on the real banishment of the ­Chinese population in Eureka in 1885 and stays true to actual events. Told in verse, the spare and powerful historical fiction account of a too-often forgotten piece of American history highlights the shameful treatment of Chinese immigrants as well as aspects of Chinese culture, such as Mei Mei’s mother’s lotus feet, which are referenced often throughout.