gong Gong (grandfather) Is Coming From China To Live With Helen S Family. Helen Is Excited, But Anxious. How Will She And Her Siblings, Who Only Know English, Communicate With Gong Gong, Who Speaks Only Chinese? at First Gong Gong Keeps To Himself, Reading The Chinese Newspapers He Brought With Him. Then One Day, As Helen Sits Outside Watching For The Train That Runs Behind Her House, Gong Gong Joins Her. He Starts Counting The Train Cars In Chinese, And Then Teaches Helen The Words. Helen Reciprocates By Teaching Gong Gong To Count In English. Soon Helen And Gong Gong Are Teaching Each Other More Words, And A Special Bond Between Them Begins To Develop And Grow. A Moving Intergenerational Story, Grandfather Counts Highlights The Universality Of The Love Shared Between Grandparent And Grandchild, A Love That Helps Them Cross The Boundaries Of Language And Culture.
author Biography: Andrea Cheng Is The Director Of The English As A Second Language (esl) Program At Cincinnati State Technical And Community College. A Native Of Texas, Cheng Now Lives In Cincinnati, Ohio, With Her Husband And Their Three Children. This Is Her First Book For Children.; Ange Zhang Has Illustrated Several Children S Books, Including The Fishing Summer And Winter Rescue. A Former Designer At The Beijing Opera Company In China, He Now Lives In Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.
school Library Journal
k-gr 3-helen, The Eldest Of Three Children, Relates What Happens When Her Chinese Grandfather, Gong Gong, Comes To America To Live With Them. He Speaks No English, And The Children Speak No Chinese. Helen Has Had To Give Up Her Small Bedroom, From Which She Could Watch Trains Passing. One Day, As She Is Sitting Outside On A Concrete Wall Watching A Train Go By, She Sees Gong Gong At The Bedroom Window Waving To The Engineer. One Evening, He Joins Her Outside And Begins Counting The Freight Cars In His Native Language; Helen Repeats The Words, And Then Teaches Him The English. More Words Are Shared, And A Special Closeness Develops Between Them. Helen's Voice Sounds Authentic, As She Describes The Tensions And Bonds In The Family. Bold, Impressionistic Acrylic Paintings With Soft Blues, Greens, And Yellows Predominating Sometimes Cover Whole Spreads Or Pages, Sometimes Are Framed In White With Text Above Or Below. The Characters And Translations Are Given For The Chinese Words Used In The Text. An Affecting And Tender Addition To Multicultural And Intergenerational Literature.-diane S. Marton, Arlington County Library, Va Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
