My Friend Mei Jing

McQuinn, Anna, Ben Frey, and Irvin Cheung. My Friend Mei Jing. Toronto: Annick, 2009. Print.

In My Friend Mei Jing, Mei Jing and Monifa are second graders in an American school.  Mei Jing is Chinese and Monifa is Nigerian.  They have a friendship that involves, art, playing outside, dress up, their love of animals and future aspirations.  Each girl learns about the culture of the other girl and they enjoy the company of each other.  The book simply shows that despite cultural differences we can be friends and share much in common.

When examining the readability lexile, I found My Friend Mei Jing to be at an early elementary language level because of the simple words, short sentences and high frequency words used.  Cognitively, I also placed the text at an early elementary level because the book is simply about friendship and some cultural identity touchstones (food, role of family and some cultural celebrations).  The importance of play and family are central in the text and are included because of their relevancy to a young child's life.  Socially, the text was at a low level, closest to preschool or kindergarten, because the two girls enjoy playing dress up, role-playing, helping others and playing outside.

After reading through the story and analyzing the characteristic of high quality literature I found the main characters face problems that are, on a large scale, common with children, such as understanding other cultures and classmates who are different from them.  This problem is overcome with the two characters finding similarities between each other celebrating those similarities and differences together. 

The main characters of Monifa and Mei Jing are multi-sided.  They are defined both by their cultural and individual identities (mainly Mei Jing).  Her family history, current family, food, aspirations and cultural identity are briefly shown and explained through simple sentences young readers can understand.  Between Monifa and Mei Jing their main strength is their ability to accept others with no real weaknesses observed.  The setting for these characters is modern-day America, so there are no different historical points of view, but there are different cultural points of view mainly from Mei Jing‘s perspective.

As a result of the book being fairly simple and geared toward an early reading audience, there is one multi-leveled theme: the understanding of different cultures.  This is discussed as a general concept (Chinese New Year, tea, etc.) and on a relational level between Monifa and Mei Jing (the food Mei Jing’s mom prepares, the market Mei Jing shops at with her family, the role of family in Mei Jing’s life, etc.).  Although simply worded there are plenty of opportunities in the book for a teacher to discuss how we are different but similar in our cultures.  The higher-level though processes are not easily detectable, but students should take some time to internalize the different cultures the book presents.  This isn’t explicitly encouraged by the book but should be initiated by the teacher.   

There isn’t a stereotype that I observed in the text, however the first line of the book is blunt and may put readers off.  The first line is simply, “My friend is Chinese.”  Aside from this possible misstep, the book is fairly straightforward and simple in its representation of Mei Jing and Monifa's respective culture. 

Through Mei Jing and Monifa’s positive relationship and embrace of difference the story inspires young readers to get to know others who may be culturally different.  I believe the book inspires other to realize differences aren't bad; they simply make us who we are. 
 
The literary elements I found were the theme of personal development, point of view and characterization.  The theme of personal development was shown in that Mei Jing and Monifa are sometimes confused by the differences between them but their friendship and similarities are stronger.  Monifa’s “Yuuuuck!” to how Mei Jing’s family prepares fish is how many students would react to something so different from what they are used to.  The entire story is told from Monifa’s point of view as she explores the past, present and future of she and Mei Jing's life.  Mei Jing’s family emigrated from China, she was born in America and her future aspiration is to become a veterinarian.  This is much different from Monifa’s personal life history and therefore creates a point of view that is from an outsider’s perspective but also rooted in the respect friends have for each other.  Finally, the characterization is present in the identity of each girl.  What they enjoy doing (dressing up, playing with animals, art), their hopes (becoming veterinarians), differences and cultural identity (family, food, family history, holidays).

The illustrations largely consist of paintings, some photographs and random images.  On every page a picture of a person’s face is superimposed on their painted body on each page; it is sort of weird but also unique.  There is no shading done in any of the illustrations and everything is one tone of one color. 

One idea for a minilesson would involve students bringing in artifacts that show their ancestry and what it means.  Ask their parents, see if they have anything in their house that would be safe, appropriate and not too important to bring in to class.  On a specified day there could be a class cultural show and tell.  It would be important to stress respect and knowledge in the cultural show and tell circle.
 
I would place the target audience at early elementary because between six and eight years old many students are beginning to learn and explore other cultures.  The two main characters are female, so I believe the book would best appeal to young girls.