Finally Seen

the reason why i love this book is because a girl can finally see her family again

It was a pleasure to read.

My favourite person was the main person: Lina. She had a lot of thoughts. But I didn't find the book very interesting.

When Lina’s parents and her younger sister left for Los Angeles to begin a new life they left 10 year old Lina behind to live with her grandparents in Beijing. Now after five, very long years of hoping everyday Lina is on her way to join them and start her very own new life in America, but after years of communicating through letters all is not as Lina has been led to believe. When Lina arrives in America she has some English, both speaking and reading but struggles with pronunciation and when her new classmates start to make fun of her she vows to “never speak in class again.” Slowly but surely Lina’s English improves, she makes a couple of friends and through her love of books, a wonderful class teacher, ESL teacher and school librarian she begins to blossom. Lina’s love of books is so precious and seeing herself within the pages of some goes a long way in helping her to find her place in her new country and home. For me this particularly brought home the importance for ALL children whatever their background to be reflected in the pages of the books that they read. I found this to be an incredibly powerful book, Lina is amazing; her resilience to change, the bullying she suffers, the sense of loss, grief and her total determination left me filled with love for her. While reading the book I cried with her, laughed and jumped for joy when she finally retook ownership of her voice. Mrs Ortiz, Lina’s ESL teacher is also wonderful especially when she says the most amazing and insightful thing to Lina, “I want you never to forget the i in guilt. … I want you to repeat after me, I am important. …As immigrants, we are burdened with a lot of guilt. For leaving our loved ones. Leaving our home. Sacrificing so much, or watching our parents sacrifice so much. But I never want you to forget the i in guilt. …Your dreams matter. You matter. Never forget that.” Finally Seen is an absolutely brilliant, awe inspiring book written from the heart of an amazing author. Using her own personal experiences of moving to America from China Kelly Yang delivers a powerful, heartwarming, completely believable novel full of struggles, determination and courage which should be a must read for all of KS2 and beyond.