Review by Booklist Review
This novel in verse follows 12-year-old Mei Mei in 1885 California--a tumultuous time for Chinese immigrants and Chinese Americans. Mei Mei loves her family, friends, and community in San Francisco's Chinatown. When danger arises, Mei Mei's parents send her to live with her aunt and uncle in Eureka. Though heartbroken to leave her parents, Mei Mei is consoled by the promise she'll attend an integrated public school. Alas, she arrives in Eureka only to be denied schooling and is sent to work as a kitchen assistant in a white household, but Mei Mei is thrilled when the family's daughter offers to teach her to read. The narrative is sectioned into parts based on the time periods leading up to the Chinese expulsion from Eureka. Intense moments are sprinkled throughout, balanced by Mei Mei's emotionally resonant reflections. Chang's evocative poems offer Mei Mei's first-person perspective on this oft-underrepresented time period. Back matter includes an author's note and interesting facts to contextualize Mei Mei's story. Full of heart, this novel shines a light on an important time in history.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Chang (With My Back to the World, for adults) vividly renders discrimination and racism experienced by those of Chinese heritage in 1880s California through the eyes of a 12-year-old Chinese immigrant in this dynamic verse novel. In 1884 San Francisco, Mei Mei is not permitted by law to attend public school with American children. Instead, she's educated by white teachers in the basement of a church, and learns reading and writing in her native Cantonese at a Chinese school. Using her big strong feet--so unlike Ma Ma's bound ones, "each broken toe like a lotus flower petal"--Mei Mei explores her neighborhood. But her independence is soon curtailed when, worried about increasing violence toward Chinese people, her parents send her to live with relatives up north in Eureka, believing it to be safer than San Francisco. But in Eureka, Mei Mei's aunt arranges for the tween to work as a kitchen aide for a rich white family. During her employ, she's taunted by the family's racist son, Lester, and secretly befriends their daughter Sara, who furthers Mei Mei's English education. First-person verse depicts the conditions of the period, viscerally establishing the wrenching baseline of bias and cruelty that saw Chinese residents living in wooden shacks while white families resided in multistory row houses with big windows. A contextualizing author's note details the passing of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. Ages 10--14. (Jan.)
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Review by School Library Journal Review
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. VERDICT Chang's latest is a welcome addition to any middle school historical fiction collection and will surely attract readers drawn to impactful stories told through lyrical verse.--Kate Olson
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Review by Horn Book Review
In this emotive novel in verse, Chang delves into a lesser-known event in America's history: the violent 1885 eviction of the Chinese residents of Eureka, a town in northern California. Readers follow Mei Mei, a resilient twelve-year-old whose parents send her to live with relatives three hundred miles away from her home in San Francisco's Chinatown in order to avoid anti-Chinese prejudice and hopefully attend school. Instead, Mei Mei encounters more hardship when she's forced to work as a kitchen servant for the Bobbitts, a rich white banking family. Making the best of things, Mei Mei befriends the other Chinese workers in the household as well as Sara Bobbitt, who wants to be a teacher and gives Mei Mei reading lessons. Racial animosity in Eureka grows, and Mei Mei witnesses a mob attacking her uncle. The accidental murder of a local white politician is what triggers the forced exodus from Eureka. Chang's intense poetry balances traumatic experiences with moments of bravery and kindness as Mei Mei is supported by her new family of friends and eventually reunites with her parents. Vivid descriptions and imagery effectively convey the roughness of life in late-nineteenth-century California. An author's note provides historical context; two pages of "Interesting Facts" are appended. Michelle LeeJanuary/February 2026 p.69 (c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
In the wake of traumatic events, a Chinese immigrant girl from Canton lands on her feet. Twelve-year-old Mei Mei is barred from attending public school with white children in San Francisco; instead, she attends a Chinese school. Her parents are indebted to brokers who paid for their passage to America, and now they're threatening to take Mei Mei. For her safety, Ma Ma and Ba Ba reluctantly send her hundreds of miles north to Eureka, where schools are integrated. But when Mei Mei arrives, she's made to labor in the kitchen of the rich (and mean) Bobbitt family. The kindness of their cook, Mrs. Yu, provides her with comfort, and Sara, the Bobbitts' daughter, befriends Mei Mei and secretly teaches her to speak and read English. Learning fills Mei Mei with joy, but her literacy is a fraught subject during this racially divided time. When a tragic death leads to the expulsion of Chinese people from Eureka, Mei Mei returns home to an emotional family reunion. This verse novel told from Mei Mei's first-person point of view is divided into 10 date-stamped sections from September 1884 to March 1885. The lyrical free verse transports readers into the vividly realized historical setting. Feet form a running metaphor highlighting freedom; award-winning poet Chang contrasts Ma Ma's debilitating, bound lotus feet with Mei Mei's energetic stride. This resonant story will endure for its specificity, poignancy, and metaphorical yet accessible verse. (content warning, author's note, historical notes)(Verse historical fiction. 10-14) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
