Laurence Yep

side note: I think it's weird that my tags on one edition don't carry over to another, but perhaps that's in case people use tags for shelf organizing? I dunno.

Ribbons is the first of several books that follow Robin, an eleven year old biracial dancer. Robin's parents want to bring over her maternal grandmother from Hong Kong to live with them in San Francisco (re-reading as an adult, I recognize a temporal sign post: a few years prior to Great Britain "returning" the colony of Hong Kong to China in 1997, though you could pick up on this being a '90s book with corded phones, cassette tapes, and giant heavy camcorders). However, the process is expensive and requires sacrifices... like ending ballet lessons for Robin. To her, dance is freedom so she becomes very resentful when Grandmother finally arrives and her life feels upended, moving in with her brother so Grandmother can have her room, etc.

Upon reread, I noticed that the Ribbons books (for lack of a series title) all tie into fairy tales- The Cook's Family was Peter Pan and the Lost Boys, The Amah was Cinderella, and this one is the Little Mermaid (I don't remember what Angelfish connects to, though). Robin & Grandmother eventually connect over the shared understanding of walking through pain to be free, setting up for a really lovely dynamic between grandparent and grandchild.

Skirting around the edges of Ribbons is also the concept of face: Robin's parents don't want people to know the reason ballet lessons are on pause is because they can't afford it, and while Robin's uncles Eddie and Georgie are seemingly successful, it very much looks like a front to look prosperous (luckily, Grandmother cuts to the core and puts her children in line). There's a fair amount of self-sacrificing and then lying to others pretending everything's fine, which I feel is such a specific cultural note that rings true.

Like The Cook's Family cover, I do think this was a missed opportunity to show a mixed-race child, but also as an ABC I appreciate putting Robin on the cover at all because Laurence Yep's books were among the few that had kids with similar backgrounds to me, that look like me.… (mehr)

While The Amah takes place in the world of Ribbons, our POV character is Amy Chin, Robin's friend. Her mother is a widow with 5 children to take care of, so she's seemingly gotten a break as an ex-pat family recently from Hong Kong is looking for a Chinese amah. Amy feels parallels between her stepsister role at ballet class to her home life, but finds out that Miss Stephanie (her mother's charge) also lives in a cage, albeit more gilded.

Rereading as an adult, there's some glimmers of darkness around the edge- when Stephanie is surprised Mrs. Chin paints life at the Sinclair house as rosy, or when Amy catches a glimpse of a scar on Stephanie's wrist (not the direct I thought it was going to take, but still pretty grim for a middle grade book...!) Ultimately the message is also that it's better to adapt with changes, and that there's often complexity below the surface of what looks like a idyllic situation.

There is some continuity from The Cook's Family as Ah-Way is still in Grandmother's life!… (mehr)