Spring Pearl: The Last Flower (Girls of Many Lands)

Rating:
Summary: A great charector
Review: I love Spring Pearl's book! It taught me some much about the Chinese culture.I like how she acted around the people she was with,she didn't go off and start yelling like we usually do.She has a great charector trait of patience.
I also liked how everybody thought she was worthless and couldn't do anyhting,but in the end she proved how useful she really was to them.

Rating:
Summary: Great!
Review: I read this book,and loved it.The characters were interesting,the setting exotic and the plot exciting.The Now&Then section was very nice.You learn a lot about life from this book.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Book
Review: My 11 year-old daughter loved this book. She raved so much about it, I began to read it. From the very first page, one is drawn into the story of this very likeable girl. I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: True Chinese Sensibility
Review: While this is a story which can be appreciated simply for the feisty character of the girl Spring Pearl, a poor scholar's orphan who goes to live in a rich patron's house at the height of the Opium Wars in Canton, it is so much more. Kind of a primer in Chinese culture which immediately raises modern questions as well. There are challenges to the system of values prevailing in the rich man's house, an understanding of the frustrated aspirations of adults as well as the difficulties of a girl's adolescence in a male-dominated society. But it is done with imagery not just wordy ideas, and this plays into the Asian sensibility to indicate rather than to assert boldly. I just loved it, and would recommend it for anyone from a precocious 8-10 year old, through to adolescence and beyond. I am eager to see the writer's series about the Chinese who came to America, the Golden Mountain. This is a superb introduction.

Another bonus is that it shows the true face of mercantilism and also of the internal politics of China in response to it. For those concerned about universal human rights, it definitely provokes thought. For those who think that merchants are just trying to strike a sincere bargain all the time, the fairy tale believers, it should also provoke thought.