Volume XIV, Number 4, October 12, 2007
Book Review
CM: Canadian Review of Materials is an electronic reviewing journal. We review Canadiana of interest to children and young adults, including publications produced in Canada, or published elsewhere but of special interest or significance to Canada, such as those having a Canadian writer, illustrator or subject. We review books, video and audio recordings and CD-ROMs.Julie Black Belt focuses on Julie and her interest in the martial arts. Julie idolizes the actress Brandy Wu because of her martial arts ability, and she aspires to become like her. With this goal in mind, Julie decides to take a kung fu class and thinks that getting a black belt will be easy. However, Julie realizes that practicing martial arts is more difficult than what she sees on television. She realizes that dedication and perseverance are needed in order to master the martial arts. Although Julie gets discouraged initially, her teacher motivates Julie to work on her kung fu skills. Through practice, Julie succeeds and, in the process, acquires a positive sense of self-esteem and well-being.
Oliver Chin’s book will serve as an inspirational example to young children by emphasizing the value of hard work and determination as well as the physical and psychological rewards of learning marital arts. Furthermore, it portrays a strong female protagonist in a typically “masculine” role. Readers will sympathize with Julie and applaud her triumph in learning martial arts. With suitable language for young readers, the book achieves a good balance between description and dialogue.
The text is in a large, easy-to-read font and is balanced effectively by the book’s vibrant and colourful illustrations. Evocative of graphic novels, the illustrations will catch readers’ attention. They portray the range of emotions that Julie and the other characters experience and also present the characters in “action shots,” which will appeal to younger readers and draw them into the story. Many of the illustrations are mid-action sequences that will give readers the impression that they are watching a movie instead of reading a book with static pictures. For example, Chua includes several illustrations of Julie and other kids who practice kung fu in and outside of class.
...Chin does tackle his book’s topic effectively when he portrays the hard work involved in learning martial arts as well as when he questions, to a degree, exotic representations of martial arts through Julie’s perspective...Chin’s book is a welcome addition to the existing body of children’s literature. In the last decade, an increasing number of children’s books have represented the life, history, or culture of Chinese people, but the body of literature written by authors of Chinese descent is still relatively small. Given the more popularized treatment of its subject matter, this book is appropriate for a public library that wishes to expand its collection of popular reading materials for younger children. In particular, the book’s visual attractiveness will likely appeal to “reluctant readers” and fans of the martial arts. Teachers could also find this book to be useful for starting discussion about how the media has represented martial arts and, more broadly, people from different cultural backgrounds.
-- Huai-Yang Lim