Wong, Li Keng. (2006). Good Fortune: My Journey to Gold Mountain. Atlanta: Peachtree Publishers.
Grades: 4 - 7
Book Type: Auto-Biography
Curriculum Links: Social Studies
Author Credibility: Li Keng Wong wrote this book which tells of her experience as a child coming to the United States to live. In the author`s note, she says that she was the first in her family to attend college. She taught elementary school for over thirty-five years in the San Francisco Bay area. This book is her first one for young readers.
Awards: 2007 Notable Social Studies Tradebook
Summary:
This is a biography of Li Keng Wong`s life that tells of her journey to Gold Mountain in the 1930s. It begins by describing her life with her sisters and mother in the village of Good Do Hong, a very poor but peaceful area in China. Her father was the only one in the village who had traveled to the United States in search of a job that paid great money. Her father, Baba, had been gone for several years. Baba sent money back and forth to his family, but rarely visited them. Li Keng and her family did not have to work hard in the fields like their neighbors, because of the money Baba sent them. La Keng barely knew her father and was very excited when he wrote to them about coming home soon. Baba was preparing for his family to travel to the United States with him. The United States was given the name, Gold Mountain, by the Chinese because it was the land of opportunities. In this book, Li Keng talks about how her life changed after coming to Gold Mountain. It tells of the good and bad experiences her family faced. Her family struggled financially for many years and had to be careful for fear of being deported. However, they were happy for their family to finally be together. They always celebrated the little fortunes or happy moments, even in times of great struggle. Li Keng liked living in San Francisco. This book is told through her eyes as a child coming to a foreign place where their would be greater opportunities for her family.
Standards: Culture; Time, Continuity, and Change; Individual Development and Identity
Illustrations: The only illustrations in the book are black and white photographs of her family found in the author`s note.
Access Features: Table of contents, author`s note, information about Angel Island and the Chinese Exclusion Act, web resources, and related texts
Classroom Use: I would use this book to discuss how many people migrated to the United States in search of jobs and better pay. The Chinese Exclusion Act could be discussed.
Response: I really enjoyed reading this book. It was a wonderful biography, and I loved the story it told about Li Keng`s journey to Gold Mountain. It cast a new perspective on what it was like coming to the United States and leaving the only land you had ever known. I think older children would really like this book a lot!
Related Texts:
Kai`s Journey to Gold Mountain by Katrina Currier
The Chinese American Family Album by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler
Journey to Gold Mountain: The Chinese in 19th Century America by Ronald Takaki
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