Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter [NOOK Book]

Home and Heartbreak

The New York Times bestseller Adeline Yen Mah writes her compelling story of heartbreak. Chinese Cinderella: A True Story of an Unwanted Daughter shows how she goes through hard times and tries to stay strong. Adeline Yen Mah is born into a family who neglects and hurts her physically and emotionally. Her aunt and grandparents are the only ones who believe in her and show their love to her. Mah’s stepmother, Niang, hates her and tries to keep Adeline from having a life outside her home. Her rewards and prizes from school won’t help her family love her. In fact, they dislike her more and more every time she comes home with one. Her siblings take her things and hurt her. Killing her duckling, PLT, and insulting her in front of her family is only the surface of the hard things Yen Mah has to go through. Her father and stepmother send Adeline to different schools but she still is tied to her home, hoping for a letter from her family. Through torment and sadness, Adeline tries to find herself and the world around her. Throughout the novel, the author tells her story through her own eyes. She tells the reader to be strong and that we are all special and unique. She stresses how important it is to be truthful, loyal, and to have a talent you share with the world. Her moral is to be the best person you can and to enjoy even the little things in life. Although her life was not easy, she believes that she should show people how she can be strong and determined to pull through. Adeline Yen Mah writes in an interesting way to pull readers in. She tells her story as if she has something to prove. Adeline remembers her life and tries to write about it. The reader can understand what she went through and feel the pain that she had to encounter. Most readers can relate to Yen Mah and her story in some way. This book is a heart-felt memoir that touches anyone. I enjoyed how it makes you react to the novel. It is told in so much detail that you actually feel like you are in the story. The story moves you before you even read all the way through. It's never difficult to understand what the author goes through. Some situations are vague and lack detail but when you read the book you understand why. When Adeline Yen Mah describes her boarding school in Tianjin, it is described in little detail. She improves the book by trying to let the reader understand how alone she feels and help us create our own images in our mind. Mah tells a story of love and acceptance. Readers will connect with the memoir and believe in change for innocent people and their families. Thanks to Adeline Yen Mah, hope and healing is a place in the world for everyone.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Faith Kpolie

I read the full book and am excited that I can buy it! I love this book, and for that person who rated three stars and said "Really.", This is great read. I also want to tell you guys to "read/play before you post" because some people just leave reviews when they haven't even read it yet

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Thumbs up!!!

I really like this book because it tells how she was raised and treated but its really sad. Has anyone read the second book?

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Good sample

I have read the sample, and i will definetly get the full book.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A Story of an Unwanted Daughter

Adeline Yen Mah lived her childhood as an unwanted daughter. Her father ignored her, forgetting her name and birthday. Her step-mother was cruel and abusive, and her siblings blamed her for her mother's death.
In her memoir, Adeline describes her childhood in China. This beautifully crafted memoir describes the pain she suffered from her family and shows the political changes of China at the same time.
This was an excellent novel and a quick read.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Lives up to its Name

My eleven-year-old daughter read Chinese Cinderella first, then passed it on to some friends, and because I sometimes read literature for children, told me I had to read it next.

The following review is from my blog about books, Suko's Notebook.

When I write book reviews, although they contain my opinions, I try to keep from going overboard emotionally. I'm not a journalist, just reporting the facts--but neither am I an overly emotional writer, or person. However, reading Chinese Cinderella: The Secret Story of an Unwanted Daughter was quite an emotional experience for me. I often felt on the verge of tears, and was completely outraged by the way this poor child was treated, as a nonentity in a rich family. It was unbearable to me, that this innocent, gifted child was ignored, mistreated, and made to feel bad about just about everything.

Published in 1999, Chinese Cinderella is a beautifully written memoir by Adeline Yen Mah. The book describes her early experiences growing up in China during World War II, and is a revised version of part of her autobiography, Falling Leaves.

Poor Adeline! Her mother died soon after giving birth to her, and the family shuns her and regards her as bad luck. After her father remarries, she receives constant abuse from her stepmother "Niang" (the Chinese word for mother) and siblings. Although she's an outstanding student at school, at home she's made to feel as if she doesn't exist, at the complete mercy of a cold, despicable stepmother. She's forced to become independent at a very young age, walking to school and back by herself in the worst weather. Her father's guilty of neglecting her, and allowing his second wife to be cruel and unjustly punitive towards her.

Her saving grace is her scholastic ability and intelligence, and having one person in her life who believes in her, Aunt Baba. In spite of a very difficult upbringing, Adeline is able to triumph over her past and eventually attends medical school. Chinese Cinderella lives up to it's name, and although it's shockingly sad, it's also a book about hope and the resiliency of the human spirit, about reaching dreams in spite of the worst possible circumstances. I'd like to read Adeline Yen Mah's full autobiography, Falling Leaves, an international bestseller published in 1997.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Chinese Cinderella

Chinese Cinderella is a book about this girl named Adeline. Her mother died as she was born. So now most of her family thinks she is the cause of her mother¿s death. Adeline goes throughout her life being mistreated and partly ignored. There are only a few people in her family who know that she is not the cause of her mother¿s death. They are her aunt Baba, grandpa Yeye, and Third Brother. Now she has to live with all her brothers, sisters, and a mean step mother.

*I liked how her aunt Baba kept all her report cards and kept them locked in this box where she keeps all her valuables. Then every time Adeline feels down and discouraged Baba shows her the grades and tells her how proud of her she is and how good she is at school. One thing that I liked was when Adeline had a pet duck, she named it and took care of it as if it was her own child. She named it Precious Little Treasure but its nick name was PLT. PLT was the only other person that Adeline cared about, she fed her everyday, slept with her, kept her well but then a sad day came. One day Big Brother took PLT and let their dog Jackie plays with it but then PLT got hurt and ended up dying. Adeline was really sad. Then another thing I disliked was when every time Adeline got a award or something special from school her dad would be proud of her but her siblings would get mad n hate her. Like¿..

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Truly Unwanted

This book is such a safe one, but written in a phenomenal way. Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah is a autobiography written from her early childhood through the age of fourteen. Adeline - a gifted young girl who is shunned and hated by her family - is seen as bad luck because her mother dies shortly after giving birth to her. Her father re-marries and her step-mother(Niang) is a stylish yet cruel woman who seems to hate Adeline more than her siblings do. Not to mention that her siblings do some really cruel things to her. Adeline's father has no power in the house and he's no resort to Adeline because he doesn't even remember her name or birthday.

Adeline's only resort is her Aunt Baba, her Ye Ye(Grandfather), and her Nai Nai(Grandmother). Adeline is left out from family activity and works hard to be accepted by her father. Adeline's entire life has been a challenge and this book shows just the beginning of it. If you've ever felt unwanted, think again.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A reviewer

This book is mostly about a young girl who has a huge family but none of them liked her. Since she has a ton of sivlings, and her father got remarried,and she is not treated very well at all. Everyone in her family treats her like it's her fault their real mother died. Her stepmom favors her children over everyone else, so dose her father. I think the author does a pretty good job of engaging the reader, but sometimes I felt like the book was getting boring. Like when all her brothers and sisters got a duckling was fun to read about, but then something happens to it and the author goes back to telling about how she's neglected. I liked reading about her friend, who is very athletic and is the top athlete in her school. This kind of sounded like me. I don't really get why she went away when she got kicked out because she should've stayed at her friend's house. I think homeless people would enjoy this book because then they know that there are other people out in the world that can have it worse than them.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

chinese cinderella review

Chinese cinderella is the true story about a young girl who grew up tormented and hated. Always thinking that her mother died because of her, when it was really just the birth.
It's a really good book, that'll make you think!

Ni hao ma?

Wo hen hao 12+56¿3365-345

Excellent

A sad but excellent read. You feel her pain and triumph.

Whats foot binding

Really.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Great Book

This book was really good. Throughout the book I felt what she felt. It is absolutely awful how she was treated but what a success she is! I wish that her Grandfather could know how far in life that she must be. This book is truly amazing.

Highly Recommended - loved every moment of it!

Adeline Yen Mah writes a captivating tale of her struggles through being unwanted and fighting with her own family in the book Chinese Cinderella. This story takes you into her shoes and shows that you should be grateful for what you have.
Yen Mah writes from a very young age to the mature ages of her teenage years. The memoir gives you a strong glimpse of what life is like for Chinese girls in the 1940s. Adeline has always been unloved and neglected by her family because shortly after she was born, her mother died. Her father then turned away from her and her five other siblings once he remarried. Adeline’s brothers mock and make her feel small and very unimportant, and her sister doesn’t talk to her often. Always getting put down, Adeline goes through a struggle of trying to prove to her family that she is a wonderful person.
Chinese Cinderella is a difficult book to put down. Before I started reading it, I thought I wouldn’t like it as much because I can’t relate to being unloved and neglected like Adeline was. It turns out, I didn’t need to relate exactly to her problems. Her descriptive writing helps you feel like you’re a part of the events taking place in the novel. I love how she also kept you guessing throughout most of the story. There was much foreshadowing taking place, but I felt like it was the right amount for you not to know what was going to happen, but also have a sense of what could happen. The only thing I don’t like about the book is that it had many people in certain scenes at the same time. This got confusing for me because I always had to go back to the exposition to figure out who was who. Even though that got distracting at times, it is the only thing that I can find wrong with the book.
I feel that even though no facts are put into this memoir, the experience of picturing it and reading it is enough to inspire me to make a difference in the world.

Inspiring Book!

After reading the book, I feel very emotionally attached and very sad that the book has come to an end. The author expresses her emotions very clearly throughout the text, but also allows the reader to input their feelings towards the characters as well. Through her actions, the author indirectly encourages the reader to continue to persevere and to never give up. Every single day while at the boarding school, she would run out towards the mail box in hopes for a letter for her, from anyone. She is so desperate for love, it is what really makes the reader show pity on Adeline and truly wish they were there to hug and help her. This is really great because you feel very part of the story line, almost like a witness to the terrible events. If the author is aiming at trying to make the reader feel very attached to the protagonist, then she did very well.

Chinese Cinderella.

This is an amazing book to read! I've read and reread this book several times. It's so realistic and very historical on the Chinese culture. It saddens me to know that the "middle child" seems to be invisible in her own family. The most surprising factor was that her very own, blood-related siblings treated her like an outsider. I believe Adeline is a strong and independent woman because, even as a young child, she struggled through a great emotional battle. Accepting the fact that the ones she loves most had slowly abandoned her at such a young age is quite astonishing. Tear-jerking, but the story was too sweet at times also! This book falls into the "must-read" category of novels.

Best book ever

Greatast book ever i was in battle thinkinng it was going to boring but after i finished it i was heartbroken sorry adeline yen mah

Great book!

Even after reading the sample, I read through every part again! A phenominal book.

Too graphic and sad

Sorry adeline yen mah!!

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.