Yang the Youngest and His Terrible Ear

Title: Yang the Youngest and His Terrible Ear

Genre:Children’s novel

Sub genre: diversity

Theme: Diversity, self-realization, friendship

Primary and secondary characters: Yingtao Yang, third eldest, second eldest, first eldest, Matthew

Date: 1992

Publisher Company: Dell Publishing

Brief summary on how to use for students:  This book can be use in order to show students about culture and friendship. Students will be able to read about Yingtao’s struggles and learn that through friendship and family, he can overcome any problems.

Summary: Yang Yingtao is the youngest child of the Yang family, who just moved to America from China. Everyone in the family is talented musicians except for poor Yingtao who is tone deaf. Struggling with the English language and his family, Yingtao finds his curly head friend Matthew at school. With their growing friendship, Yingtao learns about things that he actually enjoys such as baseball. The Yang family has a recital coming up to help recruit new students for his father’s lessons. Yingtao’s family, especially his father, pressure him about playing better. At the end of the story, his father opens up his eyes about the multicultural American lifestyle and accepts the fact that Yingtao is tone deaf and it is not his fault he cannot play well.