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The Forbidden Temptation of Baseball

Published by SparkPress
Distributed by Simon & Schuster

LIST PRICE ₹570.00

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About The Book

A Chinese boy struggles to adapt to American life—and discovers baseball. Despite his impulsive and curious nature, twelve-year-old Leon is determined to follow the Emperor’s rules—to live with an American family, study hard, and return home to modernize China. But he also must keep the braid that shows his loyalty—and resist such forbidden American temptations as baseball. As Leon overcomes teasing and makes friends, his elder brother becomes increasingly alienated. Eventually, Leon faces a tough decision, torn between his loyalty to his birth country—and his growing love for his new home. The Forbidden Temptation of Baseball is a lively, poignant, and nuanced novel based on a little-known episode from history, when 120 boys were sent to New England by the Emperor of China in the 1870s. This story dramatizes both the rigid expectations and the wrenching alienation felt by many foreign children in America today—and richly captures that tension between love and hate that is culture shock. It gives American readers a glimpse into what it feels like to be a foreigner in the United States and will spark thoughtful discussions.

About The Author

Dori Jones Yang is a Seattle-area writer with extensive experience making personal connections across boundaries of culture and time. Raised in Ohio, she lived and worked in Singapore and Hong Kong and covered the opening of China as a journalist for Business Week. Married to a Chinese man, she has traveled widely throughout Asia and has raised a Chinese-American child. Her previous books include a young-adult historical novel set in China at the time of Marco Polo and a middle-grade novel about a girl from China who begins fifth grade in Seattle only to discover she has lost her voice. After studying Chinese for many years, Dori knows what it feels like to struggle to express your thoughts in an unfamiliar language. Learn more at www.booksbydori.com.

Product Details

  • Publisher: SparkPress (August 15, 2017)
  • Length: 256 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781943006335
  • Ages: 10 - 14

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Raves and Reviews

2018 Washington State Book Awards finalist 2017 Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards: Gold Award, Pre-Teen Fiction – Historical/Cultural
2017 USA Best Book Award Winner in Children's Fiction
2017 Freeman Book Awards Winner in Young Adult—High School
2018 IPPY Gold Medal Minner in Multicultural Fiction - Juv–Young Adult 2018 Foreword Indies Finalist in Children's—Juvenile Fiction
2018 IBPA Ben Franklin Awards Finalist in Young Reader: Fiction
2017-2018 Reader Views Literary Award in Children—Teen Age 12 to 16

“This well-written historical novel is filled with intriguing details about Chinese and American customs and lifestyles of the era. Through Leon's expectations and his confrontations with alien customs, the reader learns about both pre-modern Chinese and Victorian-era American societies and technologies. The novel features several appendices, including a short bibliography, questions for discussion, and trivia for readers who will want to learn more. The boys’ experiences are both timely and timeless in Yang’s deft hands" —VOYA Magazine
“As I read this story, I was continually amazed about what those boys went through not only in traveling to the States but in adjusting to life, education, and customs here.” —Kirby Larson, author of Newbery Honor Book Hattie Big Sky
"Through the eyes of the ever curious "Leon" (Woo Ka-Leong), America is a play of both dazzling light and layered shadows. The Forbidden Temptation of Baseball turns our assumptions of America, and the Chinese impact on our history, upside down. A riveting and revealing story for the ages." —Conrad Wesselhoeft, author of Dirt Bikes, Drones, and Other Ways to Fly
"A smart, authentic, and engaging look at the Chinese experience in America through the eyes of an adventurous and loyal boy who journeys into the sometimes welcoming, often hostile environment that was nineteenth-century America. You’ll be drawn in by the absorbing history (which is little-known but true) but stay for the characters—and the story that brings them to life." —David Patneaude, author of Thin Wood Walls
"Set against the backdrop of the true story of 120 Chinese students sent to New England by their government to study, Dori follows the lives of Woo Ka-Leong (Leon) and his brother Woo Ka-Sun (Carson), their time with the Swann family of Suffield, Connecticut, and their conquest of baseball in a thoroughly satisfying book that will teach young readers about the Chinese, and to see their own culture through foreign eyes.” —Scott D. Seligman, author of Tong Wars and The First Chinese American
"The story shows what it feels like to move to a different country, and how frustrating it is when you have limited language skills. It illustrates the contrasts between the American and Chinese cultures—and how conflicted you can feel when two cultures collide and you’re caught in the middle." —Anna X., age 11, Mercer Island, WA, descendant of one of the 120 scholars from the Chinese Educational Mission
"The much-published Dori Jones Yang, in writing this novel, has drawn on historical accounts of the 1870’s Chines Educational Mission, as well as her own extended residence in China as a foreign correspondent. She knows whereof she writes." —Edward Rhoads, author of Stepping Forth into the World: The Chinese Educational Mission to the United States, 1872-81
"My great grandfather, Wen Bingzhong, was one of the 'First 100' and I often wondered about his experiences in America. This was a fascinating period in modern Chinese history, and Dori Jones Yang has written a story which describes how this group of young Chinese males might have felt." —Martin Tang, retired chairman, Asia, Spencer Stuart & Associates
"Although the book takes place in 1876, the conflicts and issues raised are completely modern and relevant today as communities wrestle with the integration of traditional values and changes in technology, job requirements, and evolving social mores. As Dori Jones Yang brings these characters to life, they spark lots of thought-provoking questions – fantastic for school or home." —Nancy Kennan, mother of a middle schooler, avid reader of historical fiction, and investment banker in New York City "It is 1875. Imagine you are an 11-year-old Chinese boy who has been sent to the United States by your government to gain an American education. You encounter strange customs, confusing values, and many new ways to get into trouble. In this powerful novel, Dori Jones Yang explores cultural differences and ways of responding to them. Her deep insights and the compelling plot make this a book students will enjoy and then recall as they face cross-cultural experiences of their own." —Mary Hammond Bernson, Director, East Asia Resource Center, University of Washington
“Dori Jones Yang takes a little-known piece of American history and brings it alive with wonderfully drawn, rich characters and evocative language. Highly recommended for readers of historical fiction or for readers of sports fiction.” —Patrick Fuller, Middle School Librarian, Oregon Episcopal School

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