The Traitor

Rebeccasreads highly recommends THE TRAITOR: Golden Mountain Chronicles 1885 Wyoming Territory, as not only a grand boys' adventure, it's a roller-coaster historical ride into the dark side of fighting for survival & transcending racial hatred, as well soaring into the bright side of friendship, purpose & hope. As with all Laurence Yep's chronicles of the Chinese American experience, THE TRAITOR is a riveting read! Could not put it down! Quite serious, all the more so because the events described actually happened. It makes you think "What would I have done?"

As a graduate student working on Yep's novels, I found The Traitor the most interesting and fascinating to read among the rest of his Golden Mountain Chronicles. Not only is The Traitor full of complexity and ingenuity, but also gives us the detailed history of the Chinese immigrants in the 1880s, including the severest Chinese massacre incident and the Exclusion Act. The story starts with a boy named Joseph, son of Otter in Dragon's Gate, who shares his living experiences with a local American boy Michael. As the "traitors" from both their ethnic groups, Joseph and Michael have to use their wisdom in order to survive in the Rock Springs Massacre. For those who would like to know more about the Chinese immigrant history, I strongly recommend this book.

This book, The Traitor, is a fantastic book. I read it in two days and could not put it down. It's, in a nutshell, about a Chinese-American boy named Joseph Young who wants to be fully American.Joe's a miner who misses San Francisco, where he used to live before the immigration laws threw him and his father out. In the adjoining town of Rock Springs is a boy named Michael Purdy. Mike is shunned due to his not having a father. Michael and Joseph find sanctuary in Star Rock, their weekly meeting place. Meanwhile, Mike's town is a Chinese hating society, so they band together one day to kill all the Chinese out of spite. The book is based on actual events, and if you're like me, anything with to do with Chinese culture or historical fiction draws you in. Hope you like it!