Thank you to NetGalley for granting this ARC, super cute and fast read. The illustrations were adorable and the story was cute.

Ming's Christmas Wishes is a beautiful story about a young girl whose only wish for Christmas is to have a Christmas Tree.

If you want a simple book with an easy concept to help inspire children during the holidays then this is the book to pick up to add to their Christmas collection. Gong takes us back in time to a setting that people still see today, which makes this book so relevant for its time. The messages in here of belonging and family legacy are real, simply and beautifully put and specific so that any child can understand the message being conveyed and learn something new. It also gives children a glimpse into history and helps them view their own family history and how it has brought them where they are today. Wonderful children's picture book that I hope many people add to their libraries.

Another great bonus for this book is the beautiful illustrations throughout each page. The bright colors that spring off the page with intricate details that help tell the story in a whole new way. Children will love inspecting each page as they read/listen along.

This is also a great book for slowly introducing the meaning of Christmas to families who aren't religious. It could be used for adults and children alike to open their eyes to the possibilities behind the true meaning of Christmas, what life is all about and the impact we have in the world. I really loved this book and can't wait to share it with children in the holiday seasons to come.

* I received a complimentary copy from the publisher/author(s) via NetGalley and this is my honest opinion.

This story is about Ming who wants to be accepted as an American and her parents want her to be Chinese. She encounters racism at school and her parents are unwilling to embrace some of the traditional Christmas activities but her dad takes her to meet an old friend and Ming starts to understand things better. It's a nice story with luminous pictures.

Ming's Christmas Wishes is a heartfelt book about identity and family. It's a book I wish I had while growing up. The story follows Ming who feels like she doesn't belong at school nor at home. She wishes she could sing at the Christmas choir and she wishes that she could have a Christmas tree at home. But one day, her father takes her on a ride to meet some of her family and learn about her heritage. It's a short but beautiful read and makes you incredibly warm inside as you finish the book. I think it's such a wonderful read that I think will resonate with a lot with young readers.

My students enjoyed Ming's Christmas Wishes! They thought the illustrations were pretty and appreciated the sentiment behind the message of the story. They thought that there should've been a little more added to the end to the story - do Ming and her Mother find common ground? I liked the elements of Chinese culture present in the story. Every child could relate to not always fitting in, and looking for their place in the world. A lovely story to read in December with students of many ages!

NOTE: Thank you to Shadow Mountain Publishing for the free electronic copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

This was really cute. I don't normally review children's books, but this one piqued my interest, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Ming's Christmas Wishes follows a little girl named Ming as she struggles to find an identity for herself in 1930s California, torn between her Chinese roots and her American life. Barred from the school Christmas choir on account of her race, Ming hopes to at least talk her mother into a Christmas tree, but her mother vetoes this, as Christmas trees are not Chinese. Ming's sympathetic father takes Ming to visit an old friend, Uncle Lin, and they reminisce about their adventures, which span two continents. After leaving Uncle Lin, they visit an altar built by Chinese miners, then compromise on the tree issue by harvesting a Chinese pine. At the end they decorate the tree with Chinese ornaments while the mother watches in the background, if not with complete approval then at least without open hostility.

My favorite part of the book was the illustrations, which are gorgeous full-spread paintings done by Japanese illustrator Masahiro Tateishi. They're so soft and cozy, and they set the stage beautifully. The trouble is that there's not much substance to the story. The writing is okay, if a bit awkward in places, but it doesn't make me feel anything in particular. I get what Gong was trying to do, but the book's stated purpose got muddled in the telling. The story is somewhat unresolved, and the characters are hard to pinpoint because they feel more like sketches than like people I might actually know. And maybe this is why the book feels so deeply impersonal to me: even though it was inspired by family stories, it doesn't feel specific to this one particular family. It feels like it came out of a mold. It feels like a story that could be told by any Chinese American raised in the 1930s. It's just very sweet and very bland, and that, in the end, was what pushed it – at least for me – from four stars to three.

Ming's Christmas Wishes
Susan L. Gong, 2020
New Release! A copy of this book was provided by Netgalley for the purpose of review.

I had to read through this children's book twice to understand it, but it definitely grew on me.

This short, beautifully illustrated children's book follows a few days in the life of a young Chinese-American girl in the 1930s. Ming wants a Christmas tree (this is related to a larger desire to fit in at school), but her mother won't hear of it.

The next day, Ming's father takes her to visit some family friends and some places his father took him when he was young. The trip connects her with her heritage, and they even come back with a tree to decorate - not a fir tree to cut down and discard, but a Chinese pine to keep in a pot.

That all sounds simple enough, but there's something distinctive about the way this book is written, and it's somewhat unsettling if you're expecting a standard children's story. For one thing, the book is full of unanswered questions. On the first page, Ming is told that she can't sing in the Christmas choir at school. This barely comes up again, and it isn't resolved at the end. Ming's father tells her at one point that her mother's story is a "hard" one, but we never find out what that means. There are lots of aspects of Chinese culture that are alluded to without being completely spelled out.

I can't decide whether this feels more like a flaw in the writing, or like a choice to leave space. Parents could encourage kids to speculate and guess at the details, and it does allow the story to be more open-ended. Ming can't be all "American" and she can't be all Chinese, and stories like hers don't have pat, resolved-in-the-third act endings.

It's still a happy ending, but it's more complicated than I expected.

I mentioned that the art (by Masahiro Tateishi) is lovely, and the writing is often lovely as well. It's full of poetic little turns of phrase that evoke Chinese or Japanese poetry.

Overall a unique little book, but not for everyone.

This is a children's picture book that tells the story through the eyes of Ming, a young Chinese girl living in America. It is hard for children to feel as if they are different from their peers. Ming struggles because she does not feel like she fully belongs to either culture.

This is a cute picture book. Ming learns a little more about her family and their struggles. In the end, Ming learns the power of compromise.

Source: Netgalley

Ming doesn’t feel like an American when she is at school. Ming has three Christmas wishes. Her mother tells her no to all of them as they are not Chinese customs. Her father decides to take Ming to a very wise man. As they go to see the wise man, they see the snow on the ground. They visit then leave going to the “old grove.” As Ming and her father walk , they arrive at a lopsided tree. There is a hollow that has inside it an altar. Why is an altar there? Who used it? Ming and her father go back to the truck. On their way, her father surprises her. What is the surprise?

The story is beautifully illustrated. They are perfect for the story. It is a story that explains the feeling of not being part of America due to racism in the 1930s and not Chinese enough for her mother. Ming learns to embrace her heritage and America’s heritage. The story illustrates her search for her identity.

Being an immigrant in 1930s America is hard. Ming doesn’t fit in anywhere. At home she’s too American and at school she’s too Chinese. When she goes on a day trip with her father she finds out a little about the past and they find a way to bring both cultures together.

This story has promise but I don’t think it quite delivers. Ming ends up with a compromise over one of her Christmas wishes, doesn’t get the second and her third wish, to belong, doesn’t really happen either because big much has changed.

3.5* I enjoy teaching my daughter about diversity. I think it's important to respect everyone's culture. I liked that this book not only gave us a peek into the Chinese culture, but also showed us the damage of leaving someone out. I wish the book had addressed this a little more and showed Ming finding her place between the two worlds. However, Ming does learn to love and appreciate her culture more and hopefully understand things a little better. The story was sweet and the illustrations beautiful, but I felt it was a little choppy and again wished for more resolution at the end. It ended too soon for me.

I believe Ming is a sweet girl that is like so many children, full of wishes and dreams. She has a beautiful family that sees life differently but they are from a different country and culture. The story is full of love and understanding towards one’s parents. I hope for everyone to be able to have a healthy father-daughter relationship like Ming and her father. I think that it is so important for children to feel love and understood by their parents or guardians. I have a strong relationship with my parents full of love and trust and I am glad that the author was able to show that in Ming’s story. Please read this beautiful Christmas story full of culture and love. I believe that you and your loved ones will enjoy it.

-Rebeca

Ming's Christmas Wishes by Susan L Gong is a delightful book. The illustrations are beautiful and the characters in the story are very real. I hope there will be more of Ming and her family to come.

I liked that this story was a different take on Christmas and taught something about Chinese culture. I liked the different parts of the story, but the overall story seemed to jump around a lot.

This book intrigued me because my stepmom is Chinese. 5 stars. A great book . Just because you might not celebrate Christmas like Christians doesn’t mean you can’t have a Christmas tree.
Beautiful story

A charming, sweet look at what it would be like to be caught between two cultures. It was enjoyable to follow along on Ming's journey to understanding his place in the world and what it means to him. The artwork is lovely.

With thanks to NetGalley and Shadow Mountain Publishing for an early copy in return for an honest review.

As a teacher in California I am always looking for books set in California and/or about the California experience and this is excellent. Add in that it is a Christmas book and this is a book I will be reading every year with my students! I can already see some great conversations happening and the illustrations are just absolutely gorgeous!! Excited to buy a copy for my class!

Its magical when they enter the sequoia groves. The story started cuted and then became deep. I almost had tears in my eyes for the immigrant experience.

I could see it developed into a chapter book.

I read an advanced copy of Ming's Christmas Wishes by Susan L. Gong. I loved the illustrations in this book. The colors were beautiful. Ming has a lot of wishes foe Christmas, but will she get them? Sure to be a holiday tradition to read this book, every Christmas!