1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Yep, Laurence. 2006. THE EARTH DRAGON AWAKES. New York: Harper Collins Children’s Books. ISBN 9780329675981
2. PLOT SUMMARY
The everyday lives of Henry, the child of a well-to-do San Francisco family and his friend Chin, the son of Henry’s family’s “houseboy” take a tumultuous turn when the ground beneath their feet moves viciously. While they spent their days prior to the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 reading “penny dreadfuls” and dreaming of heroes like Wyatt Earp, they spent the days after seeing their families and friends become true heroes. Pulling trapped neighbors out of wrecked homes and fighting fires are only a short number of the events these two families take part in as the story of how this horrific series of events affected hundreds of thousands living in the greater San Fran area. While moments of sadness ring true, the overall message is one of hope and courage, which young readers can take to heart.
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Yep has a true gift for creating genuine, down-to-earth and accessible characters for young readers in truly authentic and accurate settings. Henry and Chin, from different backgrounds, different cultures, different nations and different worlds are an unlikely set of friends whose strong desire to reunite after the quake keeps readers pushing for them. “Chin watches the column of smoke rising from the south and east. ‘Henry should be okay. His house is to the west.’ His father brushes the fuzz on the crown of Chin’s head. ‘You worry too much.’”
In addition to Chin and Henry their fathers, mothers and friends are richly detailed, with their eccentricities, fears, hopes and strengths portrayed in rich detail. These characters are woven into a plot that seamlessly moves back and forth between the dual fights for survival waged by the two families from such different lives in San Francisco. Yet the fires that rampage through the city after the great quake succeed in consuming both Nob Hill and Chinatown alike. No area is safe, regardless of its affluence. Yep expertly helps young readers see that when nature becomes the enemy, wealth is no protection.
Through both visual language and excellent geographic wherewithal Yep helps young readers to truly “see” the city of San Francisco at the turn of the century. The flavor of the buildings, the lives of butchers, bankers and soldiers, the green of the parks and the smell of the water churning with boats of every size and shape come to life through the author’s words.
In all this though, the theme of strength, courage and devotion to friends and family in times of crisis rings through. Young readers will feel a sense, as Henry and Chin later realize, that they are seeing the heroic in the every day. While Yep certainly has created these characters for us, their authenticity, and the reality of the struggles they endure, make us believe that others out there must have lived much as these two families did during this event.
Yep is careful to ensure that young readers feel connected to the truth of the story, most specifically in his afterward. He notes in a more expository manner statistics related to the quake and the fire that followed as well as selected readings to help students find further information. A bibliography is not included however the additional readings feel sufficient to verify to a reasonable extent the authenticity of the piece. Finally a series of photographs, credited on the t.p. verso allow readers to truly see what young people and their families would have seen during this time. It is a masterful telling and one that will surely bring students to a new level of interest in the topic.
4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
GOODREADS.COM: “Based on actual events and told from the alternating perspectives of two young friends, The Earth Dragon Awakes is a suspenseful novel about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake by Newbery Honor author Laurence Yep.”
KIRKUS REVIEWS: “…this is solid historical fiction full of details about the times and backed up with an afterword explaining the author’s connection and suggesting sources for further reading. It is notable especially for the attention paid to the experience of San Francisco’s Chinese immigrants, and a good choice for reluctant readers.”
5. CONNECTIONS
*Students could create their own “penny dreadful” based on the stories of true life heroes they research and read about in their local, regional or national newspapers or through online searches.
*A mapping activity would be an ideal curricular connection as students use the locations in the story to map out the series of events on historic city maps of San Francisco. These can then be overlaid on maps of the current city and students can hypothesize how a quake of this magnitude would affect the modern city today.
*Other historical fiction books for children about the San Francisco earthquake of 1906:
Sibley, Linda.. DAVID EXPERIENCES THE SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE. ISBN: 0-7569-0297-5
Kudlinski, Kathleen V. EARTHQUAKE! : A STORY OF OLD SAN FRANCISCO. Original ISBN-10: 0-14-036390-4 *From the Once Upon America historical fiction series.
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