I realized something lately. I have a deep love for stories told from family history. Some of my favorite stories are ones mined from past generations of the authors’ families: The Year We Were Famous, by Carole Estby Dagg; The Star That Always Stays, by Anna Rose Johnson; and today’s featured story, The View from Pagoda Hill, by Michaela MacColl. It makes sense, as I love digging into family history. I also think there’s something very intrinsically human about desiring stories to be remembered. What did we invent the alphabet for, if not to record our stories to be remembered by those who came after us?

The View from Pagoda Hill is the story of Michaela MacColl’s great-great-grandmother, a half-Chinese, half-American girl growing up in Shanghai and later upstate New York in the late 1800’s. Ning, or Neenah, as she is later called, gets the worst of both worlds, in a sense. In China, she is too tall, too Western, with too big feet (compared to the bound feet of her peers). So her mother sends her to join her father’s family in New York—where she is too Chinese for her new neigbors and family. The story and style reminded me of Little House on the Prairie, or Anne of Green Gables (particularly the latter as regarded Neenah’s relationship with her grandfather and step-grandmother). It’s also a perfect book to pair with either of those stories, to tell a more full story of our world and country at that time. (I find the advice to read more rather than less to avoid accepting old cultural norms is sound and good.)

My favorite part about this story is that despite all the tragedy Ning/Neenah lives through (particularly the pervasive feeling of being unwanted), there is an abiding sense of hope. Perhaps because it’s based on a true story, I found that hope to be believable and real. Even two years after reading the story for the first time, it’s that hope that still has me recommending it to my daughters and friends, dipping into it for a re-read, and thinking about its characters and scenes. The mark of a truly excellent book!

Start with a talented writer of historical fiction, give her a great-great-grandmother born in 1870s Shanghai, and turn her loose to do extensive research – and there is a good chance that a fine novel will result. Michaela takes sketchy information about Ning, daughter of an American father and Chinese mother and marries it to detailed research before weaving an engrossing novel that results in the book View from Pagoda Hill.

Ning, who begins life in China, becomes a misfit with her big feet that are not bound into tiny blossoms to form a foot three inches long, as is the custom in that era among the gentry. The matchmaker who comes while Ning is just twelve years old uses a derogatory term, calling her a “yellowfish” and lets her and her mother know she is unmarriageable with those ugly feet. Her traveling father, whom she has never met, seems to be the answer to her mother’s concern for her to have a good life. He arranges to have her travel to America and live with his parents. She soon learns that she is a misfit in America as well. In both places, Ning fits the role of outsider while having a champion in both places who has her back when she needs it.

In the back matter, the author’s note is almost as interesting as the story Michaela weaves. She gives information both historical and familial that she knows to be true that forms the framework of the tale she weaves around it. View from Pagoda Hill is well-researched and told with heart, so don’t let those middle-graders who are listed as its audience have all the fun.

A coming of age story with cultural identity at it's core. Ning,( later changed to Neenah for American sensibilities), grows up in Shanghai with her mother Sun and an absent American father. Ostracized and bullied for green eyes and large feet,she longs to fit in. When at 12, the matchmaker declares Ning unmarriageable her mother sends her off across the waterways and continents to New York to her paternal grandparents. Once in America, Ning fines herself criticized for her Asian ways and features.
Taken from the author's own great great grandmother's history, I longed to know more of the backstory and to see the character's more fully developed. It rightly depicts the racism directed toward the Chinese immigrants, as well as the fear, intimidation and assimilation.
Thank you to #Netgalley and Astra Publishing for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This is an OK book as an introduction into the experiences of an immigrant of Chinese descent in the United States at the turn of the 19th century. I understand that the author had a close connection to the character since it was her own great grandmother, but I wonder if she spent too much time trying to critique Americans perceptions of Chinese immigrants at the time that she forgot the age of her own character. Ning/Neenah was mostly observant and taking in the general perceptions of the world around her, but she was only 12 and some discussions she had were a bit too mature for her age. The American grandmother Sarah was too quick to change and it seem to be almost from a womens rights perspective of the 19th century view. While she was grateful for the rights and privileges that she had and she realized that they didn’t match up with China. I don’t see how THAT was the turning point in the relationship between Sarah and Neenah.
I think probably one of the most difficult parts for me to get past was when the protagonist was in her fathers room and looking at all of the things he had brought back from China. One thing that they were looking at was a dredging machine that was American designed that had been attached to a Chinese boat. The only reason that I bring this up is because that was how the protagonist realized she could be both American and Chinese. I don’t know how the rough metaphor of a boat works to describe what it is like to grow up in a life where you don’t fit into either culture. As somebody who grew up multicultural, I felt that the author did not have a real understanding or grasp of that experience. I know she plays around with the idea that her protagonist has to sometimes choose whether to be Chinese or American based on the situation she’s in, but it seems to be very surface level on that aspect. Meanwhile the anti-Chinese sentiment of many of the characters is put into the forefront.
I don’t think the protagonist was given as much of a chance to develop as a character as possible. I feel like this book has a lot of potential to be something greater but none of the conversations seem to develop in a natural way or come about in a natural way. If you have the character aged up to 12 as opposed to what the historical girl of 6, I would hope that her behaviors and works wouldn’t fluctuate between 5 and 65 in the span of two chapters.
This book has good intentions and it does touch on some of the issues in the United States at the time period. There’s a lot of potential in this book but I don’t think it was achieved.

In this novel, the author draws on her family history, imagining her great-great-grandmother Ning's life in China and her life in America. In an afterword, Maccoll explains all of the information she had about her ancestor and her desire to write about her; unfortunately, she omits from the novel the most details and information that she found that she details in the afterward. The novel itself is slow, especially for younger readers, and shallow and boring. It was a slog to get through all of Ning's travails, which were all described superficially. Ning doesn't react to things much, so we don't know how she really feels--her voice is subsumed by the author's, who tells readers what Ning feels or thinks in condescending or Polly-anna-ish language. It's a big disappointment, because Ning's real story must have been fascinating and one of both great suffering and confusion, and ultimately, survival.

When reading a historical fiction title, I especially enjoy learning about the person or persons behind the story. In this case, Michaela' brings her great-great-grandmother's story to life on the pages as you read. As mentioned after the story, there are some things that were changed like Ning's age when she came to live in America.

Regardless, this story is a great example of life in another country at a different time and the challenges faced in coming to America. There is also the fish out of water thread as Ning is half-Chinese and half-American. That means she never really "fit in" either in China or when she first comes to America.

Michaela Maccoll has crafted a lovely tale based on her own great-great-grandmother, the product of a Chinese mother and an American father. Ning, born in China, arrives in upstate New York to live with grandparents she’s never met. I won’t spoil the story by revealing any more, except to say that the life of a biracial child in the late 19th century could not have been easy. Adults may love this more than children, but it’s a great read at any age.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley, Astra Publishing House and Calkins Creek in exchange for an honest review.