American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang is a graphic novel. There are three separate narratives that become intertwined at the end of the novel. The first story (arguably the main story) is about Jin Wang, who recently moved to a new school system, where he is one of three students of Asian heritage. Throughout his narrative, he is trying to fit in with his Caucasian classmates. The second story is about the myth of Monkey King, who attempts to transform himself into a god through marital arts. The third story is about Danny and his cousin Chin-Kee. Danny struggles to avoid his cousin who embarrasses him at school. 

In terms of "teachability," there might a concern about the character Chin-Kee. He is a very stereotypical image of an Asian student, which causes tension between him and Danny. Yet it definitely seems to be a purposeful use of these stereotypes, and it could make for great conversations about stereotyping others. This book will be very entertaining for you and your students. I would supplement it with other readings as well, as the vocabulary is not particularly challenging. Overall, I think that the topics/themes make it worthwhile to teach, and there are definitely opportunities to focus on students' comprehension of the text, especially with the intertwining of the three texts.

Reference: Yang, Gene Luen. American Born Chinese. New York: First Second, 2006. 233 pages.