Thief of Hearts (Golden Mountain Chronicles, 1995)

Rating:
Summary: Thief of Hearts
Review: I can't say it was something I liked, that would be a lie. I thought it was dull and pointless, except for the legend. I would have to give this book a three star rating because NOTHING happens. For those who like to read real life exaggerated, go ahead, I'm just not the type. On with the story. Stacy was your average middle school, having lots of friends and a little trouble at home. Everything is shifted around though when a friend of her dad's, Mr. Wong, and his family from China comes to live in the United States. As soon as Stacy meets his only daughter Hong Ch'un trouble starts and are annoying each other after five minutes. At school after lunch and a miserable morning Hong Ch'un is found with little knick-nacks that are worthless except from the people that lost them. For some reason Stacy defends Hong Ch'un and is then discriminated for the first time in her life for being Chinese. After what was probably the worst day of her life she finds out that Hong Ch'un never went home that night. With the help of her mother and grandmother she finds out that Hong Ch'un ran away to China town. On there visit to China town to find Hong Ch'un, stories are revealed, family ties are found, but will they find Hong Ch'un? Who really stole the stuff and why? Read to find out if you're interested.

Rating:
Summary: The Theif of Hearts multicultural book!
Review: The Thief of Heart multicultural book!

Stacey's dad works with at a company with a Chinese guy, Mr. Wang. His daughter, Hong Ch'un, is the same age as Stacey. Before school starts, they meet. Stacey has to show Hong Ch'un around the school and they have to share a locker. When Hong Ch'un and Stacey go to their locker after school to pack up, Hong Ch'un finds something that doesn't belong to her in her backpack. Well, Jeff and Sylvia (Stacey's friends) had lost something that day. Jeff lost a wound up kangaroo and Sylvia lost a good luck charm. Now everyone blames her for stealing their things, but she really didn't. How would you feel if you were blamed for something that you didn't do? I would feel very upset and mad. Then Hong Ch'un ran away to go back to Chinatown where she lived. After they found out that Hong Ch'un was gone, Stacey, her mom, Casey, and her mom, Tai-Paw went looking for her. When they got to Chinatown, they went to Mr. Jeh's house. He sent faxes and he made phone calls to people to keep an eye out for Hong Ch'un. Do you think they will find Hong Ch'un? I think they will. Will they find out who really stole Jeff and Sylvia's things that they lost? They might find out who stole the stuff, but it depends on who it is though. I did like it because it teaches you not to steal things from people because it hurts their feelings and makes you feel guilty. If you like different cultural books, then you would like this book.

Rating:
Summary: Stacy's Thief
Review: Thief of Hearts
By: Laurence Yep
Reviewed by: J.Lau
Period: 6
The book Thief of Hearts is about a half Chinese half American girl that is very popular at school until another Chinese girl comes to her school. The new Chinese girl's name is Hong Ch'un and is very protective of herself so no one liked her. When special things are stolen from people at school and turn up in Hong Ch'un's backpack, everyone blames her of being the thief until Stacy stands up for her then everyone started thinking that she was no different from Hong Ch'un. Both Hong Ch'un and Stacy's feelings are hurt but they plan to find the real thief. So Stacy's Tai-Paw makes up a trick to get the real thief. Stacy finds out that the real thief was Karen (one of her friends) and has her apologize for everything.
I liked this book because it teaches about friendship and family.
The part about friendship that I liked was when Stacy went back to school the next day and found out whom the real thief was. After the water fight with Jeff Stacy realized that the heart pin given to her from Tai-Paw was gone. The pin had a substance on it that if you touched it, it would make a exploding noise and leave color on your fingers that wouldn't come off. She ran into bathrooms looking for someone washing their hand with a stain on them. She finally found Karen in the janitor's bathroom. Stacy found out why and instead of hating Karen she learned to treat all her friends equally." And suddenly Karen was crying and hugging me."
The part that I liked about family is when Stacy realized that her mom was learning to understand Stacy. After Stacy's mom came back from sending Hong Ch'un home, she told Stacy to go to bed. Stacy didn't want to so her mom told her not to stay up too late. "I jumped up from my chair. "Mom?" When she had turned around, I hugged her. "Thanks."" They finally started to understand each other and stop fighting and that's how a real family is supposed to act.
My favorite part of the book is when Stacy and Hong Ch'un finally become friends. Everyone at school found out that the thief really was Karen so they started to like Hong Ch'un. After school that day Hong Ch'un went up to Stacy and said thank you. When she asked what she could do to repay Stacy, Stacy said to forgive Karen and try to be her friend. So Hong Ch'un said that she would and that she wanted to be Stacy's friend too. So in the end everything turned out great.