Finally Seen

Finally Seen by Kelly Yang (Knights Of, 2023)

Everything I have read by Kelly Yang has been a jewel of children's literature. I started by reading Front Desk back in 2018 and shortly after finishing it, the book travelled round readers in my class and found new Yang fans in the process. Then came Parachutes, a novel for much older readers - and one which genuinely shocked me - in which could be felt the same compelling narrative drive. Last year I read aloud New From Here to my class. This one had a special resonance as the plot touched on the repercussions of Covid, and gave us an insight into the racism that accompanied those years of Lockdowns...and beyond. And then there was Key Player which continues Mia's story from the Front Desk series and which is possibly my favourite novel by Yang yet! 

So I am very proud to be a part of the blog tour for this author's latest novel, Finally Seen, and I'm doubly delighted to have been allowed to share the first chapter here! If you've not read any of Yang's work, you are in for a treat and, from just this one chapter, the author's stylistic fingerprints are immediately recognisable... 

The novel opens with Lina Gao travelling from China to America, something that echoes Yang's own experiences as a girl and as a mum. That sense of displacement, finding oneself in a very different cultural landscape, is a feature of her books too, and Lina's strong voice, similar to Mia's and Claire's and Knox's in their turns, tells her story with charm and wonder. (It's this voice that I think is the key to what makes Yang so very readable!) 

Alongside this, there's also a lot of very relatable experiences and reactions very familiar to many children; Yang's young readers immediately see the main character as a friend, one who seems to have been so for years. Here there's the deep connection with her grandparents, the drawing of them in her sketchbook...even the throwaway mention of collecting up the free airplane goodies. Like all Yang's main characters, Lina is fully drawn in the first few pages - she bursts from the page - but is has taken just a few elegant brushstrokes to do so.

One final thing that always grabs my attention - maybe a bit more personal, but something I think appeals to many children, too, in my experience! - is the tempting mention of different foods. White Rabbit sweets intrigue me most here - what are they? They sound glorious! - but also the baozi, the hawthorn flakes, the wheat flour cakes. I want to try them all!! 

Finally Seen is a great way to start (or continue!) your exploration of Yang's novels and I'm sure that the following extract will show you why...

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Finally Seen by Kelly Yang

Chapter 1 (extract)

A hand on my arm pushes me awake.

“Lina Gao?” the flight attendant asks. I rub my eyes awake. She smiles and says to me in Chinese, “We’re moving you up to first class. So you can get out first when we land!”

I blink in confusion. I reach for my sketch pad. I was in the middle of working on a sketch of Lao Lao gardening, but as I look up, my eyes nearly pop when I see the flight tracker on the screen. We’re almost there!

“Your escort will be waiting as soon as we get to LAX to take you to your parents.”

I leap up from my seat. Let’s gooooo!!!

I follow the flight attendant up the long aisle to first class, staring at all the people stretched out in beds with their noise-canceling headphones and candyfloss slippers. These are airplane apartments.

I take a seat in one of the cabins and reach for the fancy first-class cotton slippers. I’m so saving these for Lao Lao. I wonder if she likes her new nursing home.

I feel a tug of guilt thinking about it, but Aunt Jing said it was necessary. She and Uncle Hu both live in Shenzhen, which is about twelve hundred miles away from Beijing, and they both have 9-9-6 tech jobs. A 9-9-6 job means you work from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week. They’re the envy of the country, because they make the most money. But it also means there’s no way my aunt can be a tea brewer for my lao lao.

So they took me and Lao Lao to visit the nursing home. I remember the floors were very shiny, almost like you could go roller skating on them. I pictured a bunch of elderly folks roller skating, and then had to bite on my cheeks to stop myself from giggling. Because it wasn’t funny.

The rooms were bright, with big windows that allowed the team of nurses to look in at all times. Aunt Jing said she got Lao Lao the biggest room of all – a private room. It was the nicest room in the entire nursing home. But to Lao Lao, it was like living inside a fishbowl. She didn’t like the idea at all.

“No way!” she said, stomping her walking cane down on the ground. “Not happening! I am a free spirit – I need to be able to roam around the park and go to see my friends!”

“They can come see you!” Aunt Jing insisted. “That’s why we’re putting you into a retirement home in Beijing – so your friends can come visit. Anytime!”

Lao Lao has two good park friends: Chen Nai Nai, a grandma who loves to dance, and Wang Nai Nai, whose daughter is also in America. I’ve never seen either of them come to our house, though.

“Why can’t I just stay by myself?” Lao Lao asked, peeking at my aunt.

“Because, Ma, your arthritis and osteoporosis, it’s all getting worse. And now that Dad’s gone . . . Frankly, you should have gone into a retirement community a long time ago,” Aunt Jing said. “But you had Lina –”

“And I loved every minute of it, sweet child,” Lao Lao said, patting my hand.

I felt a tear escape. This was all my fault.

“No, don’t you cry,” Lao Lao told me. She nodded to my aunt, and with a shaking hand, she signed the papers.

I put my hand to the airplane window and whisper with all my heart:

“I’m so sorry, Lao Lao. I promise I will find a way to bring you over. I will find a way to get you out of the waiting city, too.”

“Fifteen minutes to landing!” the captain announces on the speaker. 

I immediately grab the stash of free goodies next to the candyfloss slippers. I stuff as many as I can into my backpack. Socks, sleeping masks, you name it. I add the stash to my collection of Chinese snacks I’ve brought over for my
(almost) new family. I’ve packed wheat flour cake, hawthorn flakes, pumpkin chips, and White Rabbit sweets for them, hoping the sweets will fill them with sweet guilt for leaving me behind.

I gaze out the window at the wispy clouds. The Los Angeles houses sprawl across the land, stretching all the way to the shimmering blue sea! I’ve never seen the ocean before. Before Lao Ye passed, we talked about going to Beidaihe, the closest beach to Beijing. But it was always too hard, with Lao Ye’s work and health. He was a magazine editor. Even after he “retired” he kept going into the office. He said working was the best way to stay young, but Lao Lao secretly suspected it was so he could keep eating lunch at his favourite fried dumpling place next to his office.

My lao ye had heart disease and diabetes. He used to joke that at his age, heart disease and diabetes were like stamps in a passport – signs of a life well lived. 

I wish Lao Ye had had actual stamps in his passport, though, and more time to get them. But at seventy-two, he had a stroke in the taxi on his way home from work.

We didn’t believe it even when we were sitting in the hospital waiting area. Lao Lao and I were still talking about going to the beach and pushing Lao Ye to actually retire after this. When the doctor delivered the news, all I remember is my grandma falling to the ground, pounding the cold stone floor, crying, “You get back here, you old goat! Don’t you dare leave me!”

But her beloved goat was already gone.

Lao Lao’s voice comes burrowing into my head as the plane starts to descend.

This is different. Remember, we may be six thousand miles apart, but I’m right there in your heart. Anytime you want to talk to me, just put your hand over your chest and I’ll feel it, sweet child.

As the turbulence jiggles my butt, I open my mouth, like I’m about to eat a gigantic baozi, the tears running down my cheeks. This is it, Lao Lao! I made it!!!

We touch down at 9:58 a.m. As the plane taxis, a flight attendant comes up to me. “Are you ready?”

“I’m ready!” I announce.

***

With many thanks to Courtney Jefferies who provided the extract from Chapter 1 and the permission to reproduce it for the blog. Thanks are also due to Sabina from edPR who sent me a copy of the book. 

Finally Seen was published by the amazing Knights Of on 6th July 2023 and is available from all good bookshops.