Yellow Singing Sail: A Memoir of an Only Child in China

Gr 5-8–Set in 1990s China, Yinfan grows up under the country’s one-child policy, surrounded by adults with few kids around outside of school. School is about conformity, from the red scarf she must wear to the unisex uniform and standardized education she receives, even when she moves around for her parents’ jobs. She’s lonely and seeks friendship where she can, but it is a struggle when Yinfan dislikes many of her own attributes. Providing an opportunity to learn about a global culture during a specific time period, Huang shows readers through watercolor what it looked like for her in 1990s China. Few struggles were specific to her situation, and many feel universal, such as body image and feeling loved by family. The resulting story is an identifiable experience for readers to make empathetic connections on a personal level. The uniform visual approach with a red and green color scheme and rectangular panels creates consistency in the storytelling for readers regardless of their comfort level with the visual format. One noticeable issue though is the memoir’s abrupt ending, which offers no real sense of closure. It is only in the author’s biography that readers learn Huang moved to the U.S. at age 22 to pursue illustration. However incomplete the ending may seem, this snapshot of a lived experience remains invaluable.