This important picture book introduces young readers to the man who challenged the Supreme Court for his right to be an American citizen and won, confirming birthright citizenship for all Americans. 35,000 first printing. Illustrations. - (Baker & Taylor)

"A timely and important picture book that introduces readers to Wong Kim Ark, who challenged the Supreme Court for his right to be an American citizen"-- - (Baker & Taylor)

An ALA Notable Book for Children
Winner of the Woodson Award

He challenged the Supreme Court on his right to be called citizen—and won
 
When American-born Wong Kim Ark returns home to San Francisco after a visit to China, he’s stopped and told he cannot enter: he isn’t American. What happens next would forever change the national conversation on who is and isn’t American. After being imprisoned on a ship for months, Wong Kim Ark takes his case to the Supreme Court and argues any person born in America is an American citizen.
 
I am an American: The Wong Kim Ark Story is an important picture book that introduces young readers to the young man who challenged the Supreme Court for his right to be an American citizen and won, confirming birthright citizenship for all Americans.
- (Grand Central Pub)

Martha Brockenbrough is the author of many books for young readers. he teaches at Vermont College of Fine Arts, blogs for the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators, and founded National Grammar Day. She has worked as a newspaper reporter, a high school teacher, and as editor of MSN.com.


Grace Lin is the award-winning and bestselling author and illustrator of Starry River of the Sky, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, The Year of the Dog, The Year of the Rat, Dumpling Days, and Ling & Ting,as well as picture books such as A Big Bed for Little Snow and A Big Mooncake for Little Star Grace is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and lives in Massachusetts. Her website is www.gracelin.com.


Julia Kuo is a Taiwanese-American illustrator who has worked with the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Google. She also illustrated The Sound of Silence. Julia has taught illustration courses at Columbia College Chicago and at her alma mater, Washington University in St. Louis. She was the visual arm of Chicago's 2017 March for Science and has had the honor of being an artist-in-residence at Banff Centre for the Arts in 2014 and in 2017.
Julia is currently the recipient of a 2019-2021 Gray Center Mellon Collaborative Fellowship at the University of Chicago. - (Grand Central Pub)

Booklist Reviews

This book brings to life the sights and sounds of San Francisco's Chinatown in the late 1800s, including illustrations that present the bustling neighborhood with trams, street food, and red lanterns. Unfortunately, that appealing setting is also the backdrop for a story about harsh discrimination. Wong Kim Ark was born in Chinatown to parents who emigrated from China. When he grew up, he worked a humble job as a cook, but a bigger destiny awaited. Once, upon returning from a trip to China, he was denied entry back into the U.S. and imprisoned for being Chinese—even though he was a citizen, born on American soil. His case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled in his favor, ensuring citizenship for anyone born on U.S. lands. Wong Kim Ark's story is a little-known piece of Asian American history yet indispensable to any young reader learning about immigration and being a citizen. It's also extremely timely in its portrayals of anti-Asian sentiment, which has flared up amid the COVID-­19 pandemic. Preschool-Grade 2. Copyright 2022 Booklist Reviews.

Horn Book Guide Reviews

Firm resolve in the face of discrimination is the theme of this informative picture-book biography by Brockenbrough (Unpresidented, rev. 3/19) and Lin (most recently the Storytelling Math series of board books, rev. 11/20). Wong Kim Ark was a young Chinese American cook whose 1898 U.S. Supreme Court case set the legal precedent that birthright citizenship applies to everyone, regardless of their race or ethnic background. The authors cover this overlooked part of American history and early anti-Chinese discrimination by telling the story of Wong's childhood and teenage years in San Francisco's Chinatown and the four-month imprisonment he experienced after he was denied reentry into California when returning from a family trip to China. Kuo's (I Dream of Popo, rev. 5/21) art emphasizes the othering and segregation of Chinese Americans. For example, the book's front and back endpapers depict a map of 1885 Chinatown showing the clear delineations between where white and Chinese people lived. Throughout the book, white people are shown wearing brown or black outfits while Chinese people wear red, dark blue, and gray clothing. Only the final double-page spread breaks from the theme of separation, showing a modern scene of children from diverse backgrounds (and wearing a variety of colors) playing together near the Golden Gate Bridge. Back matter includes more details about Wong's court case, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the continued discrimination he and his family faced, along with a timeline. Copyright 2023 Horn Book Guide Reviews.

Horn Book Magazine Reviews

Firm resolve in the face of discrimination is the theme of this informative picture-book biography by Brockenbrough (Unpresidented, rev. 3/19) and Lin (most recently the Storytelling Math series of board books, rev. 11/20). Wong Kim Ark was a young Chinese American cook whose 1898 U.S. Supreme Court case set the legal precedent that birthright citizenship applies to everyone, regardless of their race or ethnic background. The authors cover this overlooked part of American history and early anti-Chinese discrimination by telling the story of Wong's childhood and teenage years in San Francisco's Chinatown and the four-month imprisonment he experienced after he was denied reentry into California when returning from a family trip to China. Kuo's (I Dream of Popo, rev. 5/21) art emphasizes the othering and segregation of Chinese Americans. For example, the book's front and back endpapers depict a map of 1885 Chinatown showing the clear delineations between where white and Chinese people lived. Throughout the book, white people are shown wearing brown or black outfits while Chinese people wear red, dark blue, and gray clothing. Only the final double-page spread breaks from the theme of separation, showing a modern scene of children from diverse backgrounds (and wearing a variety of colors) playing together near the Golden Gate Bridge. Back matter includes more details about Wong's court case, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the continued discrimination he and his family faced, along with a timeline. Michelle Lee November/December 2021 p.127 Copyright 2021 Horn Book Magazine Reviews.

Kirkus Reviews

The history of Chinese American plaintiff Wong Kim Ark and the landmark 1898 Supreme Court decision that held that all people born on U.S. soil are citizens of the United States. This biography of Wong Kim Ark doubles as a primer on Chinese American and American-immigrant history of the late 19th century. Born in San Francisco to immigrant parents from China, Wong believed in his heart, "I am an American" (as the book's titular refrain proudly repeats). Plain, short sentences teach readers about immigrant life, racism, and Wong's personal story. The question of Wong's citizenship comes to a head when he travels to China to visit and is detained upon his return, despite his bearing a document signed by three White witnesses swearing that he was born in California. Eventually his case "went all the way to the highest court in the land" to decide: "What makes someone American?" Of course, Wong won, and "his victory changed the nation." Told in simple, spare language, the book is an introduction for very young children to this angle of America's racist past. The result is a narrative and discourse with gaps, and curious older readers will have questions. The four pages of backmatter may help, including more details of Wong's life, the court case, American citizenship, and a timeline that combines Wong's significant dates and general Chinese American history. (This book was reviewed digitally.) An important and complex period in American history geared to young readers. (Informational picture book. 4-8) Copyright Kirkus 2021 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly Reviews

In simple, spare prose, Brockenbrough and Lin trace the early life of Wong Kim Ark—born in San Francisco in 1873 to parents who emigrated from China—whose Supreme Court case would clarify the definition of U.S. birthright citizenship in 1898. Employing the refrain "I am an American," the narrative effectively emphasizes how racism can impact laws' interpretation and implementation. After Kim Ark is imprisoned for several months when his American citizenship is called into question, his "fate depended on whom the justices believed. And it wasn't only his future at stake." Kuo's fine-lined digital art, gracefully employing reds, blues, and browns, presents an immersive backdrop to this solid historical primer, which also resonates in the present day. Back matter features more context about the story as well as a timeline; end papers display an 1885 segregated map of San Francisco's Chinatown. Ages 4–8. (Nov.)

School Library Journal Reviews

K-Gr 4—Wong Kim Ark was born in San Francisco in 1873 and knew he was an American. He had never lived anywhere else. Then the Chinese Exclusion Act passed in 1882, hindering immigration, job opportunities, and eventual citizenship for Chinese people in the United States. Violence toward Chinese people became even more commonplace, and Ark's parents went back to China. After visiting his family in China, Ark was detained from entering the country, despite being born in America. He won the lawsuit in San Francisco to be freed, but this did not apply to the U.S. government, so he brought the case to the Supreme Court. His victory guaranteed citizenship to all of those born in the U.S. This detailed picture book biography introduces readers to a historical figure who changed birthright citizenship laws. The digitally rendered artwork fills each spread, and its detailed imagery gives insight into life in San Francisco's Chinatown in the late 1880s and early 1900s. Endpapers include an 1885 neighborhood map of Chinatown, outlining Chinese-occupied, white-occupied, and vacant areas, to give a clearer picture of the city's population. Back matter features photos and a time line starting with 1849, when the first large group of Chinese immigrants began to settle in the U.S., to the 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act. VERDICT An important picture book biography to augment classroom conversations about immigration and citizenship.—Kristyn Dorfman, Friends Academy, Locust Valley, NY