Rats!

Grace Lin

The Year of the Rat

Little, Brown, 2007

Like its predecessor (The Year of the Dog), Grace Lin's The Year of the Rat begins with the lunar new year feast and the observation that different cultures see rats differently, good and bad. For our heroine, known as Pacy to her family and Grace to others, the year brings difficult changes, most notably her best friend Melody moves to California. Grace feels isolated and alienated, and as a result behaves sometimes shamefully. Her family is there to support her, however, and their personal stories help Grace to learn empathy. The year brings surprising successes as she is affirmed as an artist, sticks up for the new Chinese kid in town (there was, for me, an interesting discourse around the word, "weird"), and begins building more meaningful relationships with the friends she had neglected.

  In the Chinese zodiac, the year of the rat begins a new cycle two years after the year of the dog. Thus, Grace is at the cusp of adolescence, and sorting through questions of self and social expectations is more complex. Lin handles these with, I can't help myself here, grace. And, of course, there's plenty of celebrations (wedding and moon festival sandwiched between lunar new year dinners) with their requisite delicious foods peppering the narrative.