Book Review: Are You Nobody Too? by Tina Cane

Publisher’s description

After years of discomfort as the only Chinese student at her private middle school, Emily transfers to Chinatown’s I.S. 23 for 8th Grade and ends up feeling more disconnected than ever. In this coming-of-age novel-in-verse, will Emily be able to find her way or will she lose herself completely?

After a year of distance-learning, Emily Sofer finds her world turned upside down: she has to leave the only school she’s ever known to attend a public school in Chinatown. For the first time, Emily isn’t the only Chinese student around…but looking like everyone else doesn’t mean that understanding them will be easy—especially with an intimidating group of cool girls Emily calls The Five.

When Emily discovers that her adoptive parents have been keeping a secret, she feels even more uncertain about who she is. A chance discovery of Emily Dickinson’s poetry helps her finally feel seen. . . but can the words of a writer from 200 years ago help her open up again, and find common ground with the Five?

Amanda’s thoughts

I’m going to tell you something: I thought I hated Emily Dickinson poems for a long time. I didn’t like her in high school, and I didn’t like her when I took poetry classes in college. But in the many (many) years since then, I’ve come around on her. For our main character Emily, her connection to the other Emily’s poems is immediate. Her deep down loneliness and thoughtful approach speaks to her. Our Emily is trying to adjust to life at her new school in Chinatown. As an adoptee who is just now starting to learn Cantonese and Mandarin, she feels totally out of step with her classmates and a little embarrassed of her white parents. Told in verse, eighth grade Emily navigates the school clutching her Dickinson book the whole time, looking to her poems for solace and guidance. Slowly, she begins to make friends and feel more at ease both at her new school and in her own skin. Set not long after most schools returned to in-person learning during the early part of the pandemic, Emily also struggles with the disconnect and isolation that came from that time. This quiet look at identity and loneliness will appeal to readers who appreciate the brevity of the verse format and who like a character-driven story.

Review copy courtesy of the publisher

ISBN-13: 9780593567012
Publisher: Random House Children’s Books
Publication date: 08/27/2024
Age Range: 10 – 13 Years

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