Although there's a happy ending, I didn't find that there was a ton to talk about with this book in ESL book club. April's grandmother -- is she senile? is she manipulative? is she both and trying to hide her senility? It's not clear, and though April makes peace with her grandmother and her future at the end, that's not enough to feel that there was much of importance in this book. I did keep turning all the pages, so I found it engaging -- just nothing to think back on in much detail.

The amount of explicit (maybe even pasted on) cross-cultural experience was interesting, though it never crossed into the realm of the truly surprising, so even that was a bit disappointing / left the whole purpose of the book a bit unengaging to me. Sure, China respects teachers, prefers boys to girls, and has a lot of cultural expectations regarding family obligation -- that's all common knowledge today. There's a lot of cultural foreignness to China that persists, though, which I'm surprised to encounter each time I do, and which isn't addressed in the book.

Anyway. Would have loved if the book had said something new to me. But the book was written 25 years ago, and probably hoped to bridge boundaries with light talk rather than talk about practices that can be disturbing on first light of Western sensibilities (or, I suppose, what she describes was disturbing 25 years ago but has now become mainstream).... I didn't find a ton to recommend in it beyond its role as yet another well-written generic young adult book about high schoolers finding themselves. But for that audience, it's well recommended. ( )

Reviewed by Marta Morrison for TeensReadToo.com

April is Chinese-American. She lives with her father, brother, and grandmother in Seattle, Washington. When the story begins, April is a junior in high school. She plays in her school's orchestra and belongs to the geology club. April loves rocks. She wants to go to school in Colorado to study geology, but there is a big problem - GRANDMA.

Grandma came to live with them when April was small. April's mother was so distraught that she went to work at the local library, until she died two years ago from lung cancer.

In Chinese-American families, the most important family members are the boys. The girls don't count for much. April, growing up in America, is having trouble being submissive, especially to her spoiled, doted-on brother.

When Grandma is diagnosed with diabetes and begins showing signs of senility, it is expected that April take care of her. April is torn between being the good Chinese daughter and pursuing her dreams of going to college and becoming a geologist. Her brother is so self-centered that April has to give up being in the orchestra and belonging to her rock club. Will she have to give up all of her dreams?

I enjoyed reading APRIL AND THE DRAGON LADY and did so in about a week while reading three other books. April is a good character and her fight is interesting. The characters learned a lot during the length of the story about family, love, culture, independence, and giving to others. I highly recommend reading this book. ( )

Frustrating in that it brings up many of the issues that bother Asian-American women, but never quite resolves them.