Boxers & Saints

Yang, Gene. Boxers & Saints. First Second, 2013.

I have read American Born Chinese, and although I enjoyed the art in that book, I found the story difficult to follow, and I didn't really enjoy the story itself.

Boxers and Saints, however, are completely different. The art is just as lovely as in ABC, but these books tell the story of the Boxer Rebellion, something I remember hearing about in passing, but never really learned about either in school or on my own. Boxers tells the story from the point of view of a Boxer (obviously), a Chinese person who resents the presence of white people in China and who is willing to fight to keep China exclusively Chinese. Saints, on the other hand, tells the story of a person who converts to Christianity and welcomes the influence of the white people in China. Through both stories, the reader can see that, regardless of which side one believes is right, the conflict created a big mess and caused a lot of suffering and death.

I would easily recommend this book to my students. As it is, I can barely keep it on my shelves; I don't have to do the readers' advisory when my students do it for me. :)

Recommended for: teens, tweens, adults, fans of historical fiction
Red Flags: violence
Overall Rating: 5/5 stars