Parachute Kids

Shirley J.                     Juvenile Graphic Novel            inspired by the author's parachute experience

Parachute Kids: A Graphic Novel by Betty C. Tang   288 pages                                                             

This story is based on the author's own experiences as a parachute child and teen.   It is an excellent story with lots of heartbreaking and genuinely scary moments that the 3 siblings are forced to undergo in trying to stay under the government's radar as they are undocumented aliens living in the U.S. (alone) in a home their parents bought for them to live in and attending school while their parents have to leave the country and go back to China until they can get new Visas approved and can come back to the U.S. to be with their children.   As the story starts there are friends living across the street that look after the kids, but, things dissolve rapidly when the father of that family is transferred to a different city through his job, the kids are left on their own in a country they are still not able to understand nor speak the language well, a dishonest group runs a scam on them bilking the oldest sister out of most all of the money their parents left for them to live on, the son gets in with a group of thugs, it is both heart wrenching following these kids along their journey with no adult guidance in a foreign land but there are sweet and funny times they share, too.  It definetly gives the reader a heart for the struggle these kids have to go through.   I recommend this book to middle-schoolers on up.