Yep, Laurence. WHEN THE CIRCUS CAME TO TOWN. Ill. by Suling Wang. New York: Harper Trophy, 2002. ISBN 0064409651
When ten year old Ursula gets smallpox and decides not to go out in public until her face heals, it is Ah Sam, a Chinese cook working for her parents, who helps her realize she is more than her appearance. Set in the early twentieth century, WHEN THE CIRCUS CAME TO TOWN, is a book based on a similar event in Montana.
In WHEN THE CIRCUS CAME TO TOWN, ten year old Ursula is our main character. She is white and living in Montana during the pioneer days. Everyone around her is white except for one man, Tom, who lives outside of town. Tom is a Native American and not always accepted by people in town and those traveling through. Ursula's parents are kind to anyone of any culture and teach Ursula to appreciate all people. This offers a unique contrast during this time period and is integral to the other important character, Ah Sam. Ah Sam is Chinese and moved to America to provide for his family still in China.
When Ah Sam comes to work for Ursula's parents at their restaurant townspeople were not happy. "They said Chinese used a drug called opium. They would cheat and steal. They said a lot of other things too." Ah Sam gives a lot of cultural markers to the story. His appearance is what Ursula notices first: "The cook was a small man with long, slender fingers. His skin was a light tan, and his eyes were strange. But his hair was the funniest. It was shaved on the crown so his forehead looked real big. In back, though he wore his hair in a long pigtail. Ma called it his queue." Ah Sam later tells Ursula why he wears his hair in a queue: "the Manchus would kill me if I cut it...They are the barbarians who rule China...They make us wear our hair like horse tails. That reminds the Chinese of the horses the Manchus rode when they beat us."
Yep does a great job showing Ursula as well as readers that all people have similarities. When Ursula learns Ah Sam has a daughter in China she wants him to not feel sadness and also wants to know more about where he's from. She works hard to include him in her family's Christmas celebration and when she learns what it's about and to recreate it for him in her hometown. She learns that some things they do to celebrate are "important for Heaven. But we do other things, like eat lots, clean our houses. Men get haircuts. Maybe they trim their queue a little. And they shave the crowns of their heads. Anyone who has debts pays up. And we put money in red envelopes and give them out to children. We set off fireworks and beat gongs to scare away the bad spirits and have a dragon parade." Ursula gets all the town members to contribute and they all learn about Chinese New Year and that people from different cultures are valuable.
The town puts all their heart into Ursula's project because Ah Sam, a former circus performer in China, was able to get Ursula out of her house after smallpox left her face with permanent reminders. Ah Sam learned how much Ursula loved the circus and brought his cousins, also circus performers, to her hometown to perform, but said they couldn't perform without music. So Ursula's new-found skill of playing the harmonica was vital to her emotional healing process.
Yep blends so much cultural information with a strong story line of a young girl's emotional healing process that readers will learn about Japanese culture and not realize how much they are being taught. It's an excellent historical fiction work with cultural authenticity.
Find Elliot Paul's memoir which this story is based on:
A GHOST TOWN ON THE YELLOWSTONE
ISBN 9781417983353
Read other books by Laurence Yep:
DRAGON'S GATE
ISBN 9780064404891
DRAGON CAULDRON
ISBN 9780064403986
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