Mamie Tape Fights to Go to School

In a carefully researched account, Huahn traces a Chinese girl’s attempts to attend school in 1884 California. As part of the only Chinese family in her San Francisco–area neighborhood, Mamie Tape (1876–1972) and her siblings grow up playing with neighborhood children, and “I thought school would be the same.” When she and her mother arrive, however, they are stopped by the principal and told, “Your kind is not welcome here.” Tape’s parents push against San Francisco’s policy excluding Chinese children from its schools. The saying “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” repeats as the family takes step after step to ensure Tape’s education. While the school board keeps institutions segregated, the family wins the right for Tape to attend classes—“because of the steps I’d taken, there was now one public school where we were welcome.” A subdued palette of brown, maroon, and slate blue dominates Chan’s sometimes-wooden digital illustrations, which focus on classroom scenes as well as the Tape family’s well-appointed home. An author’s note and bibliography conclude. Background characters read as white. Ages 4–8. (May)