I Hate English! by Ellen Levine

I Hate English by Ellen Levine Illustrated by Steve Björkman

Overview: I Hate English is a book about a immigrant Chinese student, named Mei Mei, from Hong Kong. Her family moves to New York where everything is in... English. Although Mei Mei was a great student in Hong Kong where everything was in Chinese, she doesn't speak or participate at school in New York because she hates English. Mei Mei starts going to the Chinatown Learning Center where she helps younger students in arithmetic, plays games and sings all in... Chinese. One day Mei Mei gets a teacher at the Chinatown Learning Center to help her with English. Mei Mei is not happy about it but eventually learns to appreciate both languages.

Target Audience: Immigrant students who are having trouble fitting in and assimilating to a new culture.

Reading Level (according to scholastic.com):
Grade level equivalent: 1.8
Lexile Measure: 390 L
Guided Reading: L

Rating: 30/32 (based on rubric listed above)

-I rated the book 4/4 in relatability because it portrayed a very realistic struggle that many immigrant students face as they assimilate to the American culture ( learning English, not being the one that makes the decision to move, struggling to fit it, not excelling academically).

-The book received a 3/4 rating for stereotypes because it has a few stereotypes in the book. The one that particularly stuck out to me was that in the book Mei Mei is said to have been a "good student" back in Hong Kong and helps children at the Chinatown Learning center with arithmetic. Asian students are often seen as smart and good at math.

-Although the book portrayed a realistic representation of the culture, it did not show a realistic representation of other characters. The book received a 3/4 rating in diversity because it shows only characters with caucasian and asian features. It follows Mei Mei around most of the time but the few times it shows other characters, like in the classroom, there is no sign of other ethnicities besides caucasian shown. 

Additional Pros: 
-Lets teachers see what goes on in children like Mei Mie's minds since most often, children like her go through a silent phase like Mei Mei did.
-Builds empathy for ESL students who aren't often understood.

Literary Elements:
The literary elements listed below can be taught using this book
-theme
-conflict
-tone

You can also view a reader's response that I created on Animoto in the following links:

Part 1 - I Hate English!      Part 2 - I Hate English!      Part 3 - I Hate English!

Levine, E., & Börkman, S. (1989). I Hate English! New York: Scholastic.