Summary:
Yinglan Yang is proud of her Asian heritage, and does not give interest into her brother and sister, who have adapted to and adopted American customs. Although, her brother and sister want Yinglan to feel the same sense of comfort that they feel, and decide that she needs help making friends. Both the brother and sister decide to set up Yinglan with Paul Eng, a Chinese American baseball player. When a secret matchmaking plan turns into chaos, all the children end up becoming friends.

The central message of this book is to be open to new experiences and cultures. I like how this book depicted Yinglan's struggle to adjust to an American culture. Many people can relate to the struggle of adjusting to new situations, and Yinglan ended up handling it well once she formed new friendships and relationships. ( )

Summary: Yang the second tells a story about a family who moved from China to America about a year prior. The family is all starting to adjust to their new life in America except for Second Sister. The Eldest Brother and Father are really into their music, Mother is into cooking, Third Sister is into becoming American and her friends and Forth Brother is into his friends as well. Third Sister and Forth Brother are starting to become upset for Second Sister because she seems unhappy. Forth Brother mentions having the Eng's, another Chinese American family, over for dinner. At this suggestion, Second Sister is appalled and makes fun of the family and Forth Brother for bringing it up. Third Sister, Forth Brother and Third sisters friend, Kim, come up with a plan to make Second Sister happy. While they are scripting their plan, Kim's older brother Jason overhears them and thinks they are talking about him and Second Sister. The three kids want to talk about Second Sister having a crush on Paul (one of the Eng's) in front of Paul and the opposite in front of Second Sister. They go through with the plan, not knowing Jason overheard them. One day all three families are together, hiking and having a picnic. At this picnic, Jason and Paul realize that they both heard Second Sister liked them. They start to race and get lost in the woods. After this, the kids have to explain to their parents as well as Second Sister why the boys were racing over Second Sister. To everyones surprise, Second Sister laughs at them but still decides they have to find the boys. Everyone sets out in search for them when finally Kim, Third Sister and Forth Brother find them. They also have to tell Jason and Paul the plan they had and apologize for their actions. Because of this, Second Sister, Jason and Paul all became good friends and got revenge on the little kids.

Argument: Overall, I really liked the message in this book. There were a few messages I picked out- about being open minded to different races, the struggle to adjust to a new culture and the consequence of tricking people the way Third Sister, Forth Brother and Kim did. Throughout the book, Second Sister did not want to become Americanized while the rest of the family did. I think this portrays an accurate struggle of a family that has just moved to America. Second Sister was homesick and going through a huge culture shock. The rest of her family was encouraging her to become American but thats not what she wanted. In the end, Forth Brother realized that she should be allowed to feel connected to whatever culture she wants to be with no judgement. I also liked how this book showed Second Sister's struggle with feeling like she doesn't fit in with either culture. This is very accurate because not everyone can move to America and fit right in. Kim, Third Sister and Forth Brother all learned their lesson after they got caught in the trick they played on Second Sister. This shows what can happen, the unexpected consequence, of when you mess with someones feelings like that. ( )