by Grace Lin
When Mom and Dad read my resolutions, they laughed.
“Well, these are very unusual resolutions,” Dad said, “though I guess most people would like to share your last resolution.”
“Americans write resolutions,” Mom said. “Chinese and Taiwanese people write wishes. I think some of the things on your list are more like wishes.”
“Is there a big difference?” I asked.
“Well, a resolution is something you can try to accomplish,” Mom said. “For a wish to come true, it needs someone else to make it happen.”
“Resolutions are better,” Dad said. “You’re more powerful. You don’t have to depend on anyone. A wish is left to fate, but a resolution is a change you make yourself. You can change your destiny with your resolution.”
I didn’t really understand what Dad was talking about—fate and destiny and resolutions? I did like the idea of being powerful, but I also really liked the idea of someone else making my wishes come true—that seemed a lot easier. I looked at Melody’s list. Hers were a lot like mine, except for one.
“Why did you write ‘stay in New Hartford’?” I asked. New Hartford was the name of our town, the one we lived in now.
Melody looked sad. “I wasn’t supposed to tell you because we aren’t supposed to have sad feelings on New Year,” she said. “But my mom told me we might be moving.”
“Moving!” I said. “You can’t move! You just got here.”
“I know,” she said. “I don’t want to. But my Dad’s company wants to give him a job in California.”
“California is on the other side of the country!” I said. “That’s too far. You can’t go.”
“Well, my mom said maybe,” Melody said. “So, maybe we won’t. Let’s hope for good luck.”
“Pacy, Melody!” Mom said, calling us over. “It’s almost midnight.” Mom handed us funny hats and noisemakers, and we all watched the clock. But, even though I blew and yelled when the clock hit twelve, I was quiet and worried on the inside. Melody was my best friend— we did everything together. If she left, I would be the only Asian student in my elementary school, except for Ki-Ki. If Melody moved, everything would change.
Chapter 3
Rats
MELODY AND I BOTH WENT TO THE OXFORD Road Elementary School. Our teacher, Ms. Magon, was very strict about talking in class. She made Melody sit on the right side of the room and me on the left side, because she said we talked too much when we sat next to each other.
But on the Monday after Chinese New Year, we weren’t sitting in the classroom. We were going on a field trip! Our class had been studying about the American Revolution and so everyone in our grade was going to a place called Fort Stanwix. It was a real fort that the soldiers had used during the war. We were all going to pretend that we were American soldiers and experience what it would have been like there during the Revolutionary War.
Our class had been preparing for this trip for a long time. We had to sew our own haversacks, which were the bags that the soldiers carried all their things in. I wasn’t happy with my haversack. Mom had given me an old pillowcase to make mine out of, so it had buttercup flowers sprinkled all over it. I thought it was ridiculous. What soldier would have a yellow, flowered haversack?
We were going to eat like soldiers, too; we were going make homemade stew over a fire. So everyone was assigned to bring an ingredient. I brought a turnip, while Melody brought an onion. She was kind of worried about the onion because at the grocery store it was labeled a “Spanish Onion” and we didn’t think the Revolutionary soldiers would get onions from Spain. But Ms. Magon said it was okay.
Before we went, Ms. Magon divided us into ranks. There was going to be a sergeant, two corporals, and two cooks from each class. The rest of us would be privates. Ms. Magon picked the names from a bowl. Melody was a corporal! I didn’t get picked, so that meant I was a private.
Since Melody was a corporal, she had to walk at the front of the line when Ms. Magon gave us our “marching orders” to the bus. I walked in the back with my other friends Becky and Charlotte. They were fun. Becky was the one who named Melody and me “The Almost Twins” because we had so many things in common—like being the only Asians in school. Becky had curly brown hair, while Charlotte had pale waves like unbraided silk rope. Before Melody had moved here, they had been my best friends. We were still friends now, but Melody was my best friend.
“One, two, three,” Becky whispered to me. “Forward, March!”
“This is so silly,” Charlotte said. “Revolutionary War soldiers wouldn’t be getting on school buses.”
“Yes,” I said. “But if we were Revolutionary War soldiers, we’d have to march all the way there.”
“And stay there,” Becky added. “We’d have to eat there and sleep there in the dirt with rats! Yuck!”
“Rats aren’t that bad,” I said, thinking about the Year of the Rat and Dad’s story.
“What?!” Becky said. Both she and Charlotte looked at me as if I were crazy. “Rats are disgusting!”
“No,” I said, trying to explain. “It’s the Year of the Rat this year. And to Chinese people, rats aren’t that bad.”
“Ew!” Charlotte said. “Well, I’m glad I’m not Chinese then!”
I was embarrassed after that. I wished I had just kept quiet. It was so hard to explain these things. Sometimes, I felt like I was more than one person. At home, everyone called me Pacy, my Chinese name; and at school, everyone called me Grace, my American name. And it was even more confusing because I wasn’t even sure if I was Chinese. My parents came from Taiwan, which (because of some adult politics I didn’t really understand) some people thought was a part of China. So, some people called us Chinese while other people called us Taiwanese. At times I wasn’t sure which person I was supposed to be—Taiwanese Pacy or Chinese Pacy or American Grace.
So I was glad when I saw Melody on the bus saving me a seat. Just seeing her wide grin and waving hand filled me with a comfortable, safe feeling, like opening up an umbrella in the rain. I knew she would understand. What would I do if Melody left?
Contents
Title Page
Welcome
Dedication
Chapter 1: A Sweet New Year
Chapter 2: How to Get Rich
Chapter 3: Welcoming the New Year
Chapter 4: Talent
Chapter 5: A Surprise
Chapter 6: A New Year, A New Friend
Chapter 7: Almost Twins
Chapter 8: Dinner at Melody’s
Chapter 9: Red Eggs
Chapter 10: Albert’s Party
Chapter 11: Tiger Chasing Pig
Chapter 12: Luck
Chapter 13: The Book Contest
Chapter 14: Trying to Discover
Chapter 15: The Science Fair
Chapter 16: Dreaming of Dorothy
Chapter 17: A Real Chinese Person Book
Chapter 18: The School Play
Chapter 19: The Wizard of Oz
Chapter 20: Digging Up a Book Idea
Chapter 21: Making a Book
Chapter 22: No More School!
Chapter 23: A Twinkie
Chapter 24: New York City
Chapter 25: Halloween at School
Chapter 26: A Prize
Chapter 27: American Holidays the Chinese Way
Chapter 28: Here Comes Chinese New Year!
Chapter 29: Good-bye, Year of the Dog
Author’s Note
Reader’s Guide
About the Author
A Sneak Peek of The Year of the Rat
Also Available from Grace Lin
Copyright
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2006 by Grace Lin
Reader’s Guide copyright © 2007
by Little, Brown and Company
Excerpt from The Year of the Rat © 2008 by Grace Lin
Cover design by Saho Fujii
Cover © 2006 Hachette Book Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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First ebook edition: January 2008
ISBN 978-0-316-03097-7