Audiobook8 hours
Gold Mountain
Written by Betty G. Yee
Narrated by Cindy Kay
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this audiobook
Growing up in 1860s China, Tam Ling Fan has lived a life of comfort.
Her father is wealthy enough to provide for his family but unconventional enough to spare Ling Fan from the debilitating foot-binding required of most well-off girls. But Ling Fan’s life is upended when her brother dies of influenza and their father
is imprisoned under false accusations. Hoping to earn the money that will secure her father’s release, Ling Fan disguises herself as a boy and takes her brother’s contract to work for the Central Pacific Railroad Company in America.
Life on “the Gold Mountain” is grueling and dangerous. To build the railroad that will connect the west coast to the east, Ling Fan and other Chinese laborers lay track and blast tunnels through the treacherous peaks of the Sierra Nevada, facing
cave-ins, avalanches, and blizzards—along with hostility from white Americans.
When someone threatens to expose Ling Fan’s secret, she must take an even greater risk to save what’s left of her family … and to escape the Gold Mountain alive.
Her father is wealthy enough to provide for his family but unconventional enough to spare Ling Fan from the debilitating foot-binding required of most well-off girls. But Ling Fan’s life is upended when her brother dies of influenza and their father
is imprisoned under false accusations. Hoping to earn the money that will secure her father’s release, Ling Fan disguises herself as a boy and takes her brother’s contract to work for the Central Pacific Railroad Company in America.
Life on “the Gold Mountain” is grueling and dangerous. To build the railroad that will connect the west coast to the east, Ling Fan and other Chinese laborers lay track and blast tunnels through the treacherous peaks of the Sierra Nevada, facing
cave-ins, avalanches, and blizzards—along with hostility from white Americans.
When someone threatens to expose Ling Fan’s secret, she must take an even greater risk to save what’s left of her family … and to escape the Gold Mountain alive.
Author
Betty G. Yee
Betty G. Yee was born and raised in Massachusetts. She spent much of her early life reimagining stories or writing sequels to them. Betty has taught elementary school for over twenty years. When she's not teaching, reading, or writing, she enjoys traveling, biking, and eating French fries. She lives in Medford, Massachusetts with her two bossy cats, Zara and Piper.
Related to Gold Mountain
Related audiobooks
Mani Semilla Finds Her Quetzal Voice Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUpstander Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Optimistic Decade Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5For Lamb Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This Indian Kid: A Native American Memoir (Scholastic Focus) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5How the Boogeyman Became a Poet Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTethered to Other Stars Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dubious Pranks of Shaindy Goodman Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhat the Jaguar Told Her Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFreedom Swimmer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Twenty-One: The True Story of the Youth Who Sued the US Government Over Climate Change Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLike Spilled Water Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Face for Picasso: Coming of Age with Crouzon Syndrome Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Playing a Dangerous Game Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAbove Us Only Sky Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Was the Ink Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hope Ablaze: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Rain Is Not My Indian Name Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Favorites Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Unbeatable Lily Hong Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBorderless Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Flying Up the Mountain Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cygnet: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Girl, The Ring, & The Baseball Bat Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRuby Lost and Found Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese's Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Come On In: 15 Stories about Immigration and Finding Home Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Whole Story of Half a Girl Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5How Maya Got Fierce Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Silence that Binds Us Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Children's Social Themes For You
Talons of Power (Wings of Fire #9) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Bad Seed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Continent: Wings of Fire, Book 11 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Days With Frog and Toad Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Escaping Peril (Wings of Fire #8) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Adventures of Captain Underpants: Color Edition (Captain Underpants #1): Captain Underpants, Book 1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Sour Grape Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I would, but MY DAMN MIND won't let me: A Guide for Teen Girls: How to Understand and Control Your Thoughts and Feelings Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dragonet Prophecy: Wings of Fire, Book 1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Smart Cookie Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Darkstalker: Wings of Fire: Legends, Book 1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Bad Case of Stripes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The One and Only Ivan Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Narcissism: How to Beat the Narcissist Understanding Narcissism and Narcissistic Personality Disorder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Frog and Toad Together Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Good Egg Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Winnie-the-Pooh Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5New Kid Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Harold & The Purple Crayon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chrysanthemum Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The School for Good and Evil: Now a Netflix Originals Movie Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wish Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The School for Good and Evil #2: A World without Princes: Now a Netflix Originals Movie Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Unwanteds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bridge to Terabithia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pax Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What Happened to Rachel Riley? Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Skull: A Tyrolean Folktale Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Out of My Mind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Gold Mountain
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
5 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An excellent example of historical fiction built on what limited research is available. What the author creates is a very fast read, but definitely not lacking in depth. Tam Ling Fan is a gutsy female protagonist who faces her fears when confronted with a nearly impossible choice: marry a boy she doesn't like, who will sell her late brother's railroad pass to pay gambling debts, or leave the only place she's ever known and disguise herself as a male in order to come to California in hopes of earning enough money to free her father from prison. In doing so, she not only learns just how resilient she is, she makes friends and helps uncover the people behind the acts of sabotage that are aimed at slowing the completion of the railroad. It's a very easy book to visualize as you read it. This is a great choice for any library where historical fiction is important.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5teen/middlegrade historical fiction/adventure - in order to get the money to release her father from Chinese prison, Ling Fan disguises herself and takes her deceased brother's job working on the California-to-Utah railroad; she learns that there are even more dangers than she imagined as traitors plot to sabotage the workers' progress and threaten to reveal her secret. This is a fast, well-paced read that features characters that we don't see often enough. It seemed to echo what I happened to have recently read about Chinese customs and Chinese-American history (except for the boy and girl twins being given very similar names), so it felt a little didactic and predictable to me but probably wouldn't to someone else that hadn't just been studying those very topics. The story is sort of adult-ish (relatively understated cover, TLF mostly interacts with adults throughout the whole book), but my library has this classed as "teen" (I think the main character is about 14) and it very much reads like a middlegrade novel, like an Asian Tom Sawyer except with the added "fun" of having to deal with menses and the vague threat of rape that young girl journey novels inevitably do (side note: I'm pretty sure Tam Ling Fan would have been able to kick Tom Sawyer's ass, but only if she generally chooses to be nonviolent). Middlegrade historical fiction has a limited audience and teen historical fiction probably fares even worse, so I'm not expecting this to be a really popular book, but it's not bad.