A gift for whom?

I don't want to sound the Scrooge (especially as the holiday season nears), but I didn't particularly like Yong Chen's The Gift. The story involves a common theme for immigrant families, the separation of siblings and attempts to bridge the distance. In this case, the acute loneliness felt by Amy's mother is assuaged by a letter and a gift from her brothers and sister. But, the gift is not for her. It is a pendant necklace carved in the shape of a cavorting dragon for daughter Amy. After receiving the gift, Amy and her mother are all smiles and locked into a blissful embrace. Oddly, of all the characters in the story, Amy (ostensibly, the American) is the only one wearing ethnic dress: a padded red-jacket with a satiny sheen and high collar. I think the subtext here is a concern for the aspirations and fears felt by Amy's mother about her daughter's connection to her Chinese heritage and extended family. The on-coming Chinese holiday is but a trigger for that concern. After all, why should a gift to her daughter so effectively ameliorate her own loneliness? I think this book is more about maternal fantasies and less sensitive to children's dreams. Text and illustrations will likely be soothing for mothers like Amy's.

Yong Chen
A Gift
Boyds Mills Press, 2009