The Paper Daughters of Chinatown (Young Readers Edition)

Adapted for Young Readers

By: Heather B. Moore, Allison Hong Merrill

Narrated by: Nancy Wu

Based on the true story of two friends who unite to help rescue immigrant women in the most dangerous corners of San Francisco’s Chinatown in the late 1890s.

When Tai Choi leaves her home in the Zhejiang province of China, she believes she’ll be visiting her grandmother. But in truth, despite her mother’s opposition, her father has sold her to pay his gambling debts. Alone and afraid, Tai Choi is put on a ship headed for San Francisco, known among the Chinese as Gold Mountain. When she arrives, she is forced to go by the new name listed on her paper documents: Tien Fu Wu.

Her new life as a servant at a gambling den is hard. She is told to stay hidden, to stay silent, and to perform an endless list of chores, or else she will be punished. Tien Fu thinks her life couldn’t get any worse, until she is sold again to an abusive shopkeeper and tasked to care for a young boy. If she is to survive, Tien Fu must persevere, and learn who to trust.

When Dolly Cameron arrives in San Francisco to teach sewing at a mission home for orphaned Asian girls, she meets Tien Fu, who is willful, defiant, and unwilling to trust anyone. Dolly quickly learns that all the girls at the home were freed from lives of servitude and maltreatment. Dolly immediately joins the group of women dedicated to saving more of these “paper daughters” because some in authority have turned a blind eye to the situation.

Despite many challenges, Dolly and Tien Fu forge a powerful friendship as they mentor and help those in the mission home and work to win the freedom of thousands of immigrant women and girls.

©2023 Heather B. Moore and Allison Ji-Jen Merrill (P)2023 Blackstone Publishing

World building and heartfelt.

I really enjoyed The Paper Daughters of Chinatown by Heather Moore and was excited to see how she would adapt it for young readers due to the nature of the content. She did an incredible job and I definitely think this is a book a parent could read with a young reader and have some great discussion with. It’s very heartbreaking what happened to these girls and women, but unfortunately this still happens today and I think the beauty of this book is the reminder and lessons we can learn from and make sure we do not repeat or allow the mistakes of the past. It shows courage and determination. The narrator also did a fantastic job. I recommend this title.

Historical Fiction, Good for Young Readers

The authors did a good job of shining a light on a really horrible part of history for these young girls that were taken from their homes and went through horrifying atrocities at the hands of others. While dealing with topics like prostitution and opium addiction, the book still stayed firmly in a place that is appropriate for young readers. If you like books that teach important lessons through historical fiction that you can share with your kids, then this is a good choice.

The friendship between the two main characters was sweet. The emotional journey of Tai Choi/Tien Fu as she learns to bloom where she was planted and help others get out of bad situations was moving. The story was a little anticlimactic for me and this isn’t my normal pick but I think it would appeal to those that do enjoy this type of story.

Romantic Content: None