The Power of the Pearl Earrings - Linda Trinh

Author: Linda Trinh

Illustrator: Clayton Nguyen

Series: The Nguyen Kids

Genre: Children's Fiction

Rating: 3 stars.

Bringing to you the story of the second Nguyen sibling, this story tackles the theme of gender discrimination.

8 year old Liz is a typical middle child, not old enough to be taken seriously and not young enough to be pampered. She loves the pearl earrings that have been bequeathed to her by her beloved Grandma Noi and she senses the power of Noi and her other female ancestors flow through those earrings whenever she touches them.

Michael is a new student in class and he seems smart and polished, such that even Liz’s best friend Robin seems to spend more time with Michael than with her, even to the extent of starting a “No Girls Club.” However, Michael takes his gendered attitude a step too far during a class project and Liz is left wishing how “"I can be one of the boys." Will Liz be able to be “one of the boys”?

The first book in this series (The Secret of the Jade Bangle) spoke about the issue of racism from the point of view of Liz’s elder sister Anne. That book had some elements of magical realism through the jade bangle’s ability to summon their dead Grandma. I guess I was looking for a repeat of a similarly magical story but that doesn’t happen. The story is good but there’s no touch of fantasy.

Gender discrimination is an excellent topic to take as children are almost “indoctrinated” into behaving as per their birth-assigned genders. Liz, for instance, loves taekwondo and coding, but Michael “mansplains” a lot of things to her and aims barbs at her for her love of the martial art. I appreciated how Liz tried to give him back a taste of his own medicine. But what I didn’t like was a partial justification of Michael’s behaviour as a result of his being a new student and trying hard to fit in. The way it was written didn’t make any sense. If he was trying hard to fit in, why would he try to antagonise the most popular girl in his class? Rohan’s character too wasn’t sketched well. While he is said to be Liz’s best friend, he switches loyalties to Michael almost overnight and doesn’t even correct him for insulting Liz. So Liz’s character comes out well but the other characters are quite frustrating.

The book has grayscale illustrations which complement the story wonderfully. The font is well-sized and extremely comfortable to read. This is a beginner-level chapter book for young readers.

To sum up, my disappointment stems from assuming that this will give me similar feels as the first book. But there is hardly anything about the Vietnamese identity struggles, nor is there any magical realism. So it is a plain old children’s story that tries to moralise but doesn’t quite hit the target. It’s not bad and tackles an important issue, but it pales in comparison with “The Secret of the Jade Bangle.”

My thanks to Annick Press and Edelweiss+ for the DRC of “The Power of the Pearl Earrings”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.