'The Earth Dragon Awakes: The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906' by Laurence Yep

Yep, Laurence. (2006). The Earth Dragon Awakes: The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.  ISBN: 9780060008468 (pbk)

Photo by: L. Propes

Imagine waking up in the early morning hours.  It's still dark and you can't see anything.  Then all of a sudden, the house begins to shake.  It lasts less than a minute, but it seems as if it goes on for much longer.  It stops just as suddenly as it starts.  The house isn't the same as it was thirty seconds ago.  The entire front of the house has disappeared, crumbled into the street.  Throughout the day, as you try to salvage what you can from your house, the earth under your feet trembles, and you worry that it will be just like the one that morning.  But it isn't over yet.  Fires break out all over the city and before they die out, much of the city lies in smoldering ruins.

Laurence Yep has written a fascinating (and entertaining) look at the 1906 earthquake that all but destroyed San Francisco.  Henry and Chin are best friends, but Henry lives in the Nob Hill neighborhood and Chin lives in Chinatown.  Chin's father, Ah Sing, works as the "houseboy" for Henry's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Travis.  Yep tells the story of the earthquake through the eyes of Henry and Chin, interspersed with explanations of how the 1906 earthquake happened and the subsequent fires that ravaged what the earthquake left behind.

Yep portrays Henry and Chin as typical young boys, eager to find the heroes that exist in their dreams and the "penny dreadful" books they both obsessively read.  Mr.  and Mr.s Travis are kind and benevolent, treating Ah Sing as an equal.  Ah Sing has a seemingly endless supply of patience with Chin and Henry that serves him well in the aftermath of the earthquake.  Perhaps the relationship between Ah Sing and Mr. and Mrs. Travis might be a little more familiar in the story than what would be historically accurate, but Yep has also painted the Travises in a progressive light.  Henry's San Francisco is miles apart, both literally and figuratively, from the San Francisco where Chin lives.  Yep manages to illustrate the stark differences between Henry's wealthy neighborhood and Chin's poorer one without resorting to lots of exposition.  The descriptions of Chinatown are borne on the recollections of Chin's immigration to the United States and his first impressions of his new home.  Yep describes Nob Hill in terms of the devastation after the earthquake.  The Travises and their neighbors discuss the damage to their homes, often containing priceless heirlooms.  The multifamily dwelling of Ah Sing and Chin is contrasted with the single family homes on Nob Hill.  One thing Yep does particularly well is demonstrate how in the face of brutal natural disasters, ordinary people are capable of heroic deeds.

The book is intended for younger readers (ages 8-12) as indicated on the back cover.  The language in the chapters written from Chin and Henry's point-of-view might not be historically accurate for the time period, but the chapters that describe the earthquake and fires have a lyrical, mystical lilt that separates it nicely from the rest of the story.  The narrative moves at a good pace, and never drags.  Yep includes the date, time, and location of of each chapter, giving the reader a sense of how quickly things progressed.

Yep has a special connection to San Francisco and her earthquakes.  In an afterword, he explains how his own grandfather, who worked as a houseboy, returned to San Francisco from a visit to China the day after the 1906 earthquake.  One of the first stories Yep ever sold was inspired by an earthquake that hit when he was a child.  He also survived the 1989 earthquake that hit just before Game 3 of the World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics.  He consulted a historian who has done a great deal of research into the 1906 earthquake for this book.  Yep's descriptions of the destruction caused by the earthquakes and fires is certainly accurate, and he also includes events that are known to have occurred.  In a few instances, there helpful footnotes give more detailed explanations of a phrase in order to avoid disrupting the flow of the narrative.  At the back of the book, Yep offers short reference list and photographs of San Francisco after the earthquake.

There is one thing omitted from the book that would give it even more of an effect for the reader: a map of San Francisco.  It would help readers immensely if they could see Nob Hill in relation to Chinatown.  It would also help to be able to find Oakland, where many of the refugees fled.  The lack of a map doesn't detract from the overall effectiveness of the book's depiction of the 1906 earthquake, though.

The Earth Dragon Awakes can obviously be used in a history class.  Students can use it as an example of writing about an event from two separate perspectives.  It could also be used in a science class about plate tectonics and earthquakes.  It can just as easily be used in an elementary classroom as it can an high school class.

Yep lists two websites students and teachers can visit for more information about the 1906 earthquake: the U.S. Geological Survey's website about the earthquake at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/nca/1906/ or the Museum of the City of San Francisco at http://www.sfmuseum.org.

The following websites have information about Laurence Yep, including videos of interviews:

http://www.learner.org/workshops/tml/workshop4/authors5.html

http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/professional-development/childlit/yep.html

http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/yep

Yep is a prolific author and winner of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal.  Some of his many books include Dragonwings (Newberry Honor), Dragon's Gate (Newberry Honor), and the American Girl series about Isabelle.  For a more complete listing of his books, please see the following webpage: http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/professional-development/childlit/yep.html.

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"Yep looks at the San Francisco earthquake from two points of view...  Yep's research is exhaustive.  He covers all the most significant repercussions of the event, its aftershocks, and days of devastating fires... the story as a whole should appeal to reluctant readers.  It's "natural disaster" subject is both timely and topical, and Yep weaves snippets of information about plate tectonics and more very neatly around his prose." -- Catherine Threadgill, School Library Journal, 2006

"Among the horror and devastation, both boys witness acts of heroism as people help each other... Each chapter is marked with a time, date, and location so readers can follow the boys' alliterating perspective.  Some chapters present facts about such things as how the earthquake begins and how and where the fires start.  These factual chapters flow seamlessly with the rest of the novel and provide much needed background information.  Young readers will find the story engaging and the disaster fascinating." -- Michelle Glatt, Library Media Connection, 2007

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References:

Glantz, Shelley. 2007. The earth dragon awakes: The san francisco earthquake of 1906. Library Media Connection 25 (4) (01): 72-, http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2048/login?url=http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2060/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=23594585&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Threadgill, Catherine. 2006. The earth dragon awakes: The san francisco earthquake of 1906. School  
       Library Journal 52 (5) (05): 138-40, http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2048/login?   
      url=http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2060/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=20844123&site=ehost-
      live&scope=site.