Outside Reading Homework Section #3 Part 1

Chinese Cinderella

Summary of Section 3
At school, Adeline met one girl named Wu Chun-mei, and she was the most athletic girl at the school. They became very good friends and since Adeline would never accept a ride to or from school, out of fright that Niang may catch her and punish her, Wu Chun-mei would walk with her if she saw her on her way to or from school. Then America won World War II in 1942 when they bombed Japan, so China was now free of the Japanese soldiers that used to occupy everything. The US soldiers would come, and the children from school would go to greet and welcome them. After a little while, Hollywood came to China, so all the American actors and people became faces if China also. Then Wu Chun-mei loaned Adeline a book called A Little Princess which she'd said was one of her favorites. Adeline read the book and it was a story about a girl who was an heiress and then was on her own and with no money because she'd lost her father. One day, some family friends brought seven ducklings for a present to the children. Adeline named hers 'Precious Little Gift' or PLT for short. She grew very fond of the duck and the duck recognized that Adeline was there to take care of her and she could trust her. Then one day, she was digging up worms for PLT, and the dog bit her in the arm. Then later that same day, the dog attacked PLT who got a broken leg and died by the next morning. Her father and Niang had been going out of town on business, and had been bringing big sister with them, who later got engaged to a man she had been introduced to on one of the business trips. She had a grand wedding ceremony, during which Adeline overheard her Grand Aunt tell Niang about the necklace she had given Aunt Baba to give to big sister. Big sister had gotten the necklace and didn't want Aunt Baba to tell anyone, especially Niang, about the necklace so that she wouldn't have to give it to her. So Adeline went to tell big sister that Niang now knew that she had the necklace, who in turn went to Niang and told her that Aunt Baba had told her to not tell anyone that she had the necklace so that she could keep it. So she got Aunt Baba in trouble because she didn't want to get in trouble.

About the author
Adeline Yen Mah was born on Tianjin, China. Her mother passed away two weeks after Adeline was born. She was considered bad luck to the family because of that. Her father remarried a few years later to a beautiful French/Chinese woman, who took over the house and was mean to all the children except for her own biological children. She is now a physician and a writer. She lives in London, Hong Kong, and her home is in Huntington Beach, California with her husband and her two kids.

Photo at http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.adelineyenmah.com/falling_files/adelinesc.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.adelineyenmah.com/falling.html&h=238&w=195&sz=6&tbnid=wOBhGkrRrSVFDM:&tbnh=109&tbnw=89&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dadeline%2Byen%2Bmah%26um%3D1&start=2&ei=5jAJR6KOCZeMigGev92VDA&sig2=_Q5goqw-Bk9U0t29vBBhIA&sa=X&oi=images&ct=image&cd=2

Bibliography

http://www.adelineyenmah.com/index2.html

http://www.randomhouse.com/author/reslts.pperl?authorid=18683