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Young Adult Fiction Asia

Throwaway Daughter

by (author) Ting-Xing Ye

with William Bell

Publisher
Tundra
Initial publish date
May 2022
Category
Asia, Adoption, Coming of Age
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780770429218
    Publish Date
    Apr 2004
    List Price
    $9.99
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781774880340
    Publish Date
    May 2022
    List Price
    $14.99

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Where to buy it

Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels

  • Age: 14 to 18
  • Grade: 9 to 12

Description

A Canadian teenager travels to China to explore her ancestry and search for her birth mother in a dramatic and moving YA novel.

Throwaway Daughter tells the story of Grace Dong-mei Parker, whose biggest concern is how to distill her adoption from China into the neat blanks of her personal history assignment. Aside from the unwelcome reminders of difference, Grace loves passing for the typical Canadian teen — until the day she witnesses the Tiananmen massacre on the news. Horrified, she sets out to explore her Chinese ancestry, only to discover that she was one of the thousands of infant girls abandoned in China since the introduction of the one-child policy, strictly enforced by the Communist government. But Grace was one of the lucky ones, adopted as a baby by a loving Canadian couple.

With the encouragement of her adoptive parents, she studies Chinese and travels back to China in search of her birth mother. She manages to locate the village where she was born, but at first no one is willing to help her. However, Grace never gives up and, finally, she is reunited with her birth mother, discovering through this emotional bond the truth of what happened to her almost twenty years before.

About the authors

by Ting-xing Ye and illustrated by Harvey Chan

Ting-Xing Ye's profile page

William Bell was born in Toronto in 1945 and went to school there until he graduated from the College of Education in 1970. Until 2002 he was a high school English teacher and department head in Ontario. Bell also taught at the Harbin University of Science and Technology, the Foreign Affairs College (both in China), and the University of British Columbia. He holds a Masters of Arts degree in Literature and a Master of Education degree. Bell's Young Adult novels have been translated into nine languages and have won a number of awards. Bell lives in Orillia, Ontario, with author Ting-xing Ye.

William Bell's profile page

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