Elizabeth Bush (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, November 1997 (Vol. 51, No. 3))
Mine owner Mrs. Maynard enrolls the academically gifted son of her Chinese servant in Miss Steele's one-room schoolhouse and then bribes twelve-year-old Renny Sholto into taking Wong Gum Zi under his wing. Renny, whose Da hates the Chinese and considers his son a soft-hearted sissy, undertakes the task grudgingly. However, several fights toughen him, and Zi's intelligence and stoic courage beguile him into a friendship that ultimately requires Renny to brave both fire and Da's retribution for Zi's safety. Blakeslee fills each predictable role with stock characters from central casting and somewhat mechanically assigns each an unexpected twist. Renny is openly bored by the preachiness of the town's saintly Irish priest; Miss Steele resents Zi, but braves the town bullies to defend her right to run the school her own way; Da's bigoted prediction that the Wongs' presence will attract Chinese low-life proves right on the mark. While Laurence Yep's stories of Chinese immigration clearly excel in plotting and characterization, this offering nonetheless provides worthwhile insight into the social and economic rationales that fueled anti-Chinese oppression in the nineteenth century. Ad--Additional book of acceptable quality for collections needing more material in the area. (c) Copyright 1997