Barbara J. Marvis

Contemporary American Success Stories is a series of biographical American success stories for grade school age and middle school students. I read volume I, Famous People of Asian Ancestry. The book contains small biographies on six Asian Americans: Pat Suzuki, a singer/ actress; Minoru Yamasaki, an architect; Kristi Yamaguchi, an Olympic Gold Medalist figure skater; An Wang, Entrepreneur, Businessman, and founder of Wang Laboratories; Connie Chung, broadcast journalist, and Carlos Bulosan, a Filipino American writer.

The book begins with a brief history of Asians in America, and shows a map of Asia. Each chapter begins with a large black and white photo of the object of the biography, and a famous quote by the person. It also has major points to focus on as the reader reads each chapter.

I very much enjoyed this book. I am very interested in Asian culture, and enjoyed seeing how these famous Americans used aspects of their cultures to become successful in America. I was only familiar with two of the subjects, Connie Chung and Kristi Yamaguchi, and enjoyed reading more about their successes. I found learning about the others even more engaging. I especially like reading about Carlos Bulosan, the Filipino American writer, who spent his very short life writing about improving the conditions of migrant workers. I had never heard of him before, and was pleased to learn about his many writing successes, in The Saturday Evening Post, and his most famous work, America is in the Heart. I spoke with my in-laws, who are Filipino American immigrants, and they spoke his praises. He was such an inspiration for Filipino Americans, and I was saddened that I had never read about him before.

The book is printed in medium print, with authentic portraits and quotations throughout. It gives many facts without becoming tedious, and would be a great book for a middle school aged child to read. It has a glossary of terms at the end of the book to guide the reader. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and learned a great deal. Four Stars.… (más)