The Secret Battle of Evan Pao by Wendy Wan Long Shang
The Hook:
Evan, his mom, and his sister move across the country from his racially diverse city in California to small town Virginia where he is now the only Asian American kid at his new school. Most of the kids at the school have lived in this small town their whole lives. In fact, this is the same town in which their great-great grandparents grew up. So having someone of Asian descent move here is big news.
He does make friends, but he also becomes the target for a kid named Brady because he looks different. Brady asks him right away if he has the “Chinese Virus” aka Covid.
The class is studying the Civil War and they all seem to be very proud of their family’s roots as Confederates, which surprises Evan. The kids bring in artifacts from the war that were passed down through the generations of their family. At the end of this project, the kids are going to reenact a battle in the Civil War and dress up as their ancestors' Confederate soldiers. Brady announces that Evan will not be allowed to participate because his family immigrated from China in the 1960’s.
At first, Evan is not sure how he will be able to participate either. He does not have any artifacts to bring in. But after researching he finds that there were Chinese soldiers. He shares this news with the class and shows them his research. Even the teacher is surprised. He taught her something she didn’t know about the Civil War, and she is considered an expert! But Brady is mad about the attention Evan is getting.
When someone shoots a bullet into Evan’s house breaking a window and scaring his dog half to death, (thankfully no one else was home), everyone at school blames Brady. The kids decide to give him the silent treatment for 2 weeks. They ignore him completely. He has to eat lunch by himself and is left out of all conversations. It is brutal for Brady. Is this the best way to handle the situation?
This book is about empathy for others, seeing different viewpoints, and not judging a person on what they look like. And it’s about forgiveness. You gotta read The Secret Battle of Evan Pao.
It’s in our library. It’s also in Sora and Axis 360 as an ebook. It is 7 AR points.
My Thoughts: (Careful! There May Be Spoilers):
This was a book with an intricate plot in that lots of things are going on but it all tied together nicely. The character development was excellent. Each character had layers to them and you could see that in the motivations of their actions. There is a subplot in that Evan’s dad had committed a crime back in California—a type of Ponzi Scheme—stealing money from their friends and neighbors. That is why they had to move to Virginia. I thought it was interesting because he of course, was not proud of his dad’s actions and even wanted to hide from everyone—he didn’t want any of the kids at his new school to find out who his father is. This was a contrast to how proud the other kids were of their ancestors who fought for the confederates in the Civil War.
Brady is also very well done. He comes off as a jerk but as the story plays out you learn of his dysfunctional family, his father’s mistreatment and dismissal of him, and it explains how he is always trying to brag and one-up everyone.
I also was very interested in the teacher’s lesson which she had done with her students for years and years. However, it was rather racist and it was not inclusive of all students. I liked that she learned showing that we are never too old to change our ways. At the end, it was explained that the parents and the teacher had ideas on how to tweak this lesson to be more comprehensive of the Civil War.
This book gave you lots to think about and I think it would be a great book for any teacher or parent to do a book study with their child. It would to lead to lots of different discussions. I give this book 4.5 stars for middle school readers.
Recommendations:
Because this book has several subplots, I believe it may be rather difficult for some of our readers to unravel without guidance from a teacher or parent to think it all through. This book is for our really big readers to read by themselves and all others to read as a book study or one-on-one with a parent. It is not for reluctant readers. It is for students in 6th-8th grades.
