Paper Son—Lee’s Journey to America

Paper Son

Paper Son–Lee’s Journey to America by Helen Foster James and Virginia Shin-Mui Loh (illustrated by Wilson Ong) taught me something about the history of immigration at Angel Island in San Francisco. Wang Lee is a “paper son,” meaning that before they died, his parents paid for him to be able to emigrate out of China. This requires some subterfuge in that the boy has to pretend to be the son of an American citizen and pass a test to prove he is, a consequence of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.

Wang Lee is twelve, an unconventional age for a picture book protagonist, but that might actually be appealing to early readers.

Paper Son–Lee’s Journey to America is published by Sleeping Bear Press and has 32 pages. The occasional high angle illustrated “shots” are impressive. The artist uses oil, pastels, soft creamy colors, and a rather dingy green for effect.

1 comment for “Paper Son—Lee’s Journey to America

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.