Li Jun and the Iron Road

November 1, 2015

Gr 8 Up-In this book set in the late 19th century, Li Jun disguises herself as a boy and finds work at a fireworks factory while trying to find a way to travel to British Columbia and search for her long-missing father. She meets James, who is recruiting for his father's railroad company, helps him find workers, and saves him from gangsters. Once in Canada, she experiences the dangerous working and deplorable living conditions the Chinese workers face building the railway. While trying to keep her gender a secret, she searches for her father, uncovers corruption, fights for the safety of her countrymen, and tries to make sense of her growing feelings for James. This novelization of a 2009 Canadian miniseries sacrifices character development for a fast-moving plot. It is hard to get a sense of the passage of time, leading to a jarringly abrupt jump between James calling Li Jun "kid" and "buddy" and the two them in bed together. Focusing solely on the plot, it reads as a breakneck listing of events, with the various story lines too scattered to be cohesive. It lacks the backstory, sweep, emotion, and drama of the source material, leaving what should have been a heart-rending ending merely slightly bittersweet. VERDICT Only worth it for those who have seen, and loved, the movie.-Jennifer Rothschild, Arlington County Public Libraries, VA

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September 15, 2015
Since her father left China to work years ago on building a Canadian railroad, then disappeared, teenager Li Jun tries to fulfill a promise made to her dying mother to find him. To escape the economic limitations imposed on females, she dresses as a boy and finds work in a fireworks factory, then discovers there is only one likely way to get to Canada: as a railroad worker herself. Now called Little Tiger, she is quickly attracted to the railroad owner's son, James, who is recruiting workers in China, setting up an eventual, improbable romance. Following a brutal cross-Pacific sea voyage, she experiences the horrific conditions thousands of Chinese railroad workers suffered through. Literate and fluent in English, she uncovers in the railroad camp evidence of a criminal conspiracy, although she only slowly puts clues together. While the depiction of the workers' conditions is enlightening, little else about this novelization of the film and miniseries Iron Road works well. The plot is predictable, and dialogue is trite. Li Jun's English is inconsistent-sometimes she's fully fluent, but other times she displays a stereotypical immigrant awkwardness. That she could successfully conceal her gender, especially during months in a ship's hold devoid of any privacy, stretches credulity to the limit. The concept is full of promise, but the product ultimately disappoints. (Historical fiction. 12-18)

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