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Double Luck: Memoirs of a Chinese Orphan

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Double Luck: Memoirs of a Chinese Orphan

Hardcover(1 ED)

$18.95

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Hardcover(1 ED)
$18.95

View All Available Formats & Editions

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Overview

When Lu Chi Fa's parents died in 1944, he was only three years old. The timing of the tragedy could not have been worse— it was a time of political turmoil and severe hardship in China. Few people willingly took in orphans, and Chi Fa's extended family was no exception. The young boy was shuffled from one house to another as his relatives turned him away, one by one. Even his loving sister was forbidden by her husband to take him under her roof.

Chi fa was always hungry, often cold, and frequently beaten. But through all his struggles, he held onto his sister's hopeful words: "You are lucky, Chi Fa. Good fortune will find you."

This stirring memoir of a painful childhood tells a story of resilience and courage, and attests to the power of even small acts of kindness.

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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823415601
Publisher:	Holiday House
Publication date:	03/01/2001
Edition description:	1 ED
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	1,052,720
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.90(d)
Lexile:	740L (what's this?)
Age Range:	10 - 11 Years

About the Author

Lu Chi Fa was born in the Jiangsu Province in China. He grew up there and in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. In 1969, he immigrated to the United States. He now owns a successful restaurant and lives in Morro Bay, California.

Becky White taught elementary school for five years before creating more than three hundred educational books. She lives with her husband in a windmill home in California, where she enjoys gardening and making books and movies for her grandchildren.

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Editorial Reviews

"readers . . . will be impressed by Chi Fa's perseverance, intelligence, and goodness of heart."—Publishers Weekly

"This is a true rags-to-riches adventure, complete with swift action and harrowing events"—The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"The descriptive, first-person text includes details of Chinese life, traditional culture, and early Communism as it conveys both the physical and emotional toll exacted by poverty and the importance of determination, hope, and compassion."—Booklist

"The strength of this book is in the clarity of Chi Fa's personal story, his optimism and determination in the face of incredible adversity."—School Library Journal

From the Publisher

Double Luck: Memoirs of a Chinese Orphan has recently won the Parent's Choice Gold Metal Award for nonfiction ages 10-12, 2002. Read more about the award and the nonprofit organization at: www.parents-choice.org

Becky White

Currently the owner of a restaurant in California, Lu looks back on a life that reflects China's tumultuous recent history, from wars and famine to Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution. Orphaned at three, Chi Fa grows up amid hardships that will be scarcely imaginable to American readers. "Chi Fa, you are lucky. Good fortune will find you," his beloved Sister tells him when, yielding to her husband, she abandons him on another sibling's doorstep. The boy is shunted among his relatives, sold to strangers and eventually rescued from them by Sister; he is beaten, starved and forced to beg. At 12, he survives a dangerous trek to freedom in Hong Kong, where an elderly man to whom he gives food fuels his dreams of emigrating to America ("In America people eat three times a day. In America they are too full to swallow sorrow"), a dream he finally realizes at 20. The first-person narrative is pedestrian and even plodding in parts ("An important thing I forgot to mention is China's class system"), but readers who are not put off by the prose will be impressed by Chi Fa's perseverance, intelligence and goodness of heart. Photos not seen by PW. Ages 10-up. (May) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Gr 5-10-The power of positive thinking is amply demonstrated in this moving memoir. Born in the turmoil of the Sino-Japanese war in China's Jiangsu province and orphaned at age three, young Chi Fa ("new beginning") had more new beginnings than any child should have to face. He was passed from relative to relative and finally sold to a Communist village chief who treated him badly. Rescued by his sister 18 months later, he was returned to his unwelcoming relatives. At nine years old, he was the caretaker for a mute epileptic and then sent to Shanghai to join the brother and the family who had first sold him. In time, they ended up in Kowloon, where, for nearly three years, Chi Fa supported them by begging, until an aunt arranged for them all to migrate to Taiwan. For the first time in his life, at 13, he went to school, but after a year, he was pulled out to work. He contributed to that family until he was conscripted into the Taiwanese army. In 1969, he immigrated to the United States, following a dream he had had for 14 years. The strength of this book is in the clarity of Chi Fa's personal story, his optimism and determination in the face of incredible adversity. The grinding poverty of daily life in China is clear. Less trustworthy is his understanding of geography and politics of the world beyond his family. Such errors make this touching story somewhat less convincing.-Kathleen Isaacs, Edmund Burke School, Washington, DC Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

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