Apple Pie 4th of July

Bibliography

Wong, Janet S. 2002. APPLE PIE 4^TH OF JULY. Ill. By Margaret Chodos-Irvine. San Diego: Harcourt, Inc. ISBN 015202543X

Summary

When a Chinese American girl learns that her parents are making Chinese food to sell at their store on the Fourth of July, she begins to worry that nobody will come. “No one wants Chinese food on the Fourth of July, I say.” Customers come in at one, two, three, and four o’clock to buy ice cream, ice, and matches. When the little girl becomes discouraged that her parents do not understand that Americans do not eat Chinese food on the Fourth of July, customers finally begin arriving to eat their Chinese food.

Critical Analysis

Wong has created a story of a modern day Chinese American girl who struggles with mixing Chinese tradition and American traditions. The little girl does not think that people will come into her family’s store to by Chinese food on the Fourth of July. She hears booms from the parade and smells apple pie cooking upstairs. When she tells her father that no one will eat the food, her father replies, “Fireworks are Chinese.”

There are only a few cultural markers found in this short picture book. The Chinese American family made chow mein, sweet-and-sour pork, egg rolls, and noodles to serve at their store. Since they lived in America, the little girl did not think that Americans would want to eat this type of food on an American holiday. The little girl explains that her “parents do not understand all American things. They were not born here.” “Even though my father has lived here since he was twelve, even though my mother loves apple pie, I cannot expect them to know Americans do not eat Chinese food on the Fourth of July.”

After the family closes the doors at the end of the day, they end the evening sitting on the rooftop watching the fireworks and eating apple pie.

The illustrator, Margaret Chodos-Irvine, used a “variety of printmaking techniques” to capture the meaning of the story. The colors are bold and bright. The little girl is dressed in a red and white stripped shirt with blue overalls. She has black hair set in a short bob, and the reader is able to understand the little’s emotions from her facial expressions throughout the story.

Reviews

Publishers Weekly review: “The author and artist teamed for Buzz return for this carefully honed story about a girl's experience as a first-generation Chinese-American. Readers first encounter the unnamed narrator as she looks unhappily out the glass door of her parents' market, open for business even on the Fourth of July. Hearing the "boom, boom, boom" of the approaching parade, sniffing the apple pie baking in a neighbor's oven, she is distracted by the cooking smells from the store's kitchen, where her parents are preparing chow mein and sweet-and-sour pork. "No one wants Chinese food on the Fourth of July," she tries to explain, and her prediction seems right as the afternoon lengthily unfolds with almost no customers. "My parents do not understand all American things," she reminds herself, "They were not born here." But the evening brings a steady stream of patrons, and the holiday concludes with the family watching fireworks (invented by the Chinese) and eating what else? apple pie. The well-paced text heavily freighted at the beginning and swift by the end reflects the girl's changing emotions and moods. The art resembles cut-paper collage.”

School Library Journal review: “This simply told story explores a child's fears about cultural differences and fitting in with understanding and affection. A Chinese-American girl helps her parents open their small neighborhood grocery store every day of the year. However, today is the Fourth of July and her parents just don't understand that customers won't be ordering chow mein and sweet-and-sour pork on this very American holiday. As she spends the day working in the store and watching the local parade, she can't shake her anxiety about her parents' na‹vet‚. When evening arrives along with hungry customers looking "for some Chinese food to go," she is surprised but obviously proud that her parents were right after all: Americans do eat Chinese food on the Fourth of July. Nighttime finds the family atop their roof enjoying fireworks and sharing a neighbor's apple pie. Done in a "variety of printmaking techniques," Chodos-Irvine's illustrations are cheerfully bright and crisp, capturing the spirit of the day as well as the changing emotions of the main character.”

Connections

Other books written by Janet S. Wong include:

Wong, Janet S. 2000. THE NEXT NEW YEAR. ISBN 0374355037

Wong, Janet S. 2004. ALEX AND THE CHESS CLUB. ISBN 0689858906

Wong, Janet S. 2000. THE TRIP BACK HOME. ISBN 0152007849