Prairie Lotus

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By Linda Sue Park

Publisher Description

Prairie Lotus is a powerful, touching, multilayered novel about a girl determined to fit in and realize her dreams: getting an education, becoming a dressmaker in her father’s shop, and making at least one friend.

Acclaimed, award-winning author Linda Sue Park has placed a young half-Asian girl, Hanna, in a small town in America’s heartland, in 1880. Hanna’s adjustment to her new surroundings, which primarily means negotiating the townspeople’s almost unanimous prejudice against Asians, is at the heart of the story.

Narrated by Hanna, the novel has poignant moments yet sparkles with humor, introducing a captivating heroine whose wry, observant voice will resonate with readers. Includes an afterword from the author.

This moving historical novel is from Newbery Medalist Linda Sue Park, whose beloved middle grade books include A Single Shard and A Long Walk to Water.

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Prairie Lotus Reviews

4.0

breehehe

Created 14 days ago

aubrey!

Created 14 days ago

Tami Provencher

Created about 2 months ago

“Hanna is half-white and half-Chinese. (Her father is white and her mother was Chinese.) At the opening of the story Hanna and her father are moving from California to the Dakota Territory in the 1880's after the death of her mother. Her father is a tailor and dry goods merchant and plans to open a shop in the new town. Hanna wants to complete her education and graduate and become a dressmaker in her father's shop. Full of historical descriptions of cooking, cleaning, and living in a small prairie town, Prairie Lotus shows Hanna navigating the prejudice and cruelty that threatens to derail her dreams. Prairie Lotus reads like a Little House on the Prairie book (by Laura Ingalls Wilder) with a more current, enlightened language and that is purposeful. The Author's Note by Parks (a Korean-American) at the end of the book talks about her love for the Little House books as a child and about the elements of those books that disturbed her as well: And Ma hated Native Americans. In several episodes throughout the series, she expresses that hatred. While I could not have articulated it at the time, I harbored a deeply personal sense of dismay over Ma's attitude. Ultimately it meant that she would never have allowed Laura to become friends with someone like me. Someone with black hair and dark eyes and tan skin. Someone who wasn't white. I also read the Little House books as a young child. Being white and naive, I did not realize at the time how hurtful these types of episodes were; I simply attributed them to Wilder's 'not knowing any better' and moved on to the parts of the stories I liked without internalizing their messages. I had that luxury, although I didn't realize it at the time. As an adult I recognized and was appalled by the treatment and portrayal of any nonwhite characters in the Little House books. It is for this reason that I never read them aloud to my own children, and I do not believe either of them ever chose to read them either. But what about the historical value of the books? For me the trade-off didn't make sense. Linda Sue Park has shown that a story set in this time period loses no historical significance or value with the inclusion of a multicultural lens. I was interested in most of Hanna's story. I found the same things boring in Prairie Lotus that I did in the Little House books: any detailed descriptions of cooking or cleaning chores. If you are looking for an alternative to the Little House books to share with young readers or just want a good historical fiction about that time period that does not pretend racism didn't exist, but addresses it in a truthful manner, I highly recommend Prairie Lotus as a great choice!”

Luna

Created about 2 months ago

Change and grow Diverse representation Memorable Original Racism

About Linda Sue Park

Linda Sue Park is the author of the Newbery Medal-winning A Single Shard, the best-seller A Long Walk to Water, and the highly-praised novel Prairie Lotus. She has also written several acclaimed picture books and serves on the advisory board of We Need Diverse Books. She lives in western New York with her family. www.lindasuepark.com, Twitter: @LindaSuePark