Chinglish by Sue Cheung

Book of the Week: 29 September 2019

The illustrated diary of Jo Kwan whose family move to a cramped flat above their Chinese takeaway in Coventry in 1984. Jo and her younger sister, Bonny, live with their mum who speaks very little English and their father, who is bad-tempered and erratic. Simon, their older brother, lives with grandparents a few streets away. Despite not enjoying school, except for art lessons, Jo finds friendship with fellow outsider, Tina, who is a goth. She is unwilling to introduce Tina to her family in case she discovers how chaotic her home life is – her dad likes to give their pet goats piggybacks around the garden for instance. Most of Jo’s story is packed with quirky characters and some funny and relatable incidents, but there is a dark side to her family life that only comes to the fore in the final third of the book. Despite the funny, down-to-earth style and the Wimpy Kid type drawings, this is an honest and upsetting story that the youngest readers may find a bit disturbing.

It has some themes in commons with The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend, Anita and Me by Meera Syal and The Boy with the Topknot by Sathnam Sanghera.