A collection of poems vividly brings to life the sights, sounds, and people of Chinatown as a little boy details his life in this delightful and unique place, in a vibrant picture book filled with full-color paintings. - (Baker & Taylor)

A boy adjusts to life away from his home in Hong Kong, in the Chinatown of his new American city. - (Baker & Taylor)

My Chinatown is a critically acclaimed, spectacularly illustrated picture book homage to family, culture, and a childhood spent in one of the most striking places in any city—Chinatown.

Kam Mak grew up in a place of two cultures, one existing within the other. Using extraordinarily beautiful paintings and moving poems, he shares a year of growing up in this small city within a city.

My Chinatown explores a boy's first year in the United States—after emigrating from China—as he grows to love his new home in Chinatown through food, games, and the people surrounding him. Through Kam Mak's spare verse and richly detailed artwork, the streets of Chinatown come vividly alive. Included in Brightly.com's 2017 list of recommended diverse poetry picture books for kids.

Chinatown—a place of dragons and dreams; fireflies and memories
Chinatown—full of wonder and magic; fireworks on New Year's Day and a delicious smell on every corner
Chinatown—where every day brings something familiar and something wondrously new to a small boy
Chinatown—home?

Chinatown—a place of dragons and dreams; fireflies and memories

Chinatown—full of wonder and magic; fireworks on New Year's Day and a delicious smell on every corner

Chinatown—where every day brings something familiar and something wondrously new to a small boy

Chinatown—home?

Kam Mak grew up in a place of two cultures, one existing within the other. Using extraordinarily beautiful paintings and moving poems, he shares a year of growing up in this small city within a city, which is called Chinatown.

Booklist Reviews

/*Starred Review*/ Gr. 2-6, younger for reading aloud. Extraordinary photo-realistic paintings and spare, free-verse poems bring New York's Chinatown to life in this picture book with appeal to a wide age group. Organized chronologically through the seasons, the poems follow a young boy from Hong Kong through his first year in the U.S. Written in the boy's voice, the words capture the fear and discomfort of adjusting to newness: "The English words taste like metal in my mouth." But as the year progresses, the boy feels the irresistible vitality of his new community, helped along by signs of the familiar; and at year's end, he exuberantly celebrates the dragon parade and his new home: "Drums beat / feet stamp / hands clap / voices shout / Chinatown, / this is Chinatown!" The words and pictures work beautifully together; both glow with a quiet intensity that complements rather than overpowers the other. Whether or not they've known displacement, readers will come away with a deeper interest in Chinatown's culture and in immigration stories in general. Suggest this to teachers doing units on home and place. ((Reviewed December 1, 2001)) Copyright 2002 Booklist Reviews

Horn Book Guide Reviews

Fifteen perceptive, keenly observant poems take a young immigrant boy through a year in which he moves from terrible homesickness for his Hong Kong home to a sense of belonging in New YorkÆs Chinatown. The beauty of the poetry is deepened and extended by full-page paintings. Though ultrarealistic, they nonetheless project emotion. Copyright 2002 Horn Book Guide Reviews

Kirkus Reviews

Fifteen untitled poems, handsomely illustrated with photo-realistic paintings, express the feelings of a young Chinese boy from Hong Kong as he adjusts to his new home in New York's Chinatown. Grouped by the four seasons, the poems span the time from one Chinese New Year to the next. The simplicity of language and beautiful paintings evoke poignant imagery; phrasing like " . . . school where English words taste like metal in my mouth" or a scene where an overhead perspective captures the boy and a girl playing chess on the floor with a cat pawing a marker, framing a tender moment. Even though the reader may not know firsthand all of the specific references-Tic-Tac-Toe-playing chicken, sidewalk cobbler, red confetti on streets from firecrackers-what comes through clearly is the boy's gradual acceptance of his new home place where daily pleasures can be enjoyed without relinquishing memories of the past. (In a different style, William Low celebrates Chinatown [1997] with darkly hued, soft-edged oil paintings depicting a boy and his grandmother walking through the streets. The two could pair nicely.) The first-person voice and strong composition of art with vivid colors symbiotically make this boy's personal emotional journey a universal experience. (Picture book/poetry. 5-8) Copyright Kirkus 2001 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved

School Library Journal Reviews

Gr 2-4-Children whose ideas about life in New York's Chinatown come solely from books about holiday celebrations will get a deeper glimpse from this former resident's solo debut. In four ruminative, simply phrased free-verse poems, one for each season, Mak looks back to childhood: to feeling homesick for Hong Kong, or excited by the annual Dragon Boat races; happily spoiling his appetite for dinner with fish balls purchased from a cart; and drifting off to sleep next to his mother as she does piecework on her sewing machine. There are no colorful urban street scenes or (with the exception of the Dragon Boat race) panoramic views in Mak's sober, extraordinary paintings. Instead, he focuses on individual figures-a curbside fortune-teller, a cobbler, a wide-eyed child drinking in a shop-rendered with photographic realism and placed against plain, undecorated backgrounds. The mood is generally wistful, though brightened at the end by a New Year's lion float prancing into view. The distinctly personal voice and sensibility makes this a natural companion for the more community-conscious tour in William Low's Chinatown (Holt, 1997).-John Peters, New York Public Library Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.