A sparkling debut novel featuring a Chinese American girl doing her best to stay true to herself in a world that often judges.
Ping-Ping has a lot going on as an American-born Chinese: She’s “more American” than people realize, but not “Chinese enough” for her relatives. She’s tired of people questioning her name, and at school pesky Lee Beaumont taunts her daily by calling her “French Fry” because of the tofu sticks she eats at lunch. She thinks she needs glasses but is worried her parents will be mad since they warned her about reading in the dark. On top of all that, Ping-Ping’s family might have to relocate to Kenya for her dad’s U.N. job. What’s a girl to do when her life is going astray? Well, good thing Ping-Ping takes taekwondo — she’s learning how to kick her frustrations away and take things in stride. This warm, funny family story will have kids cheering for Ping-Ping as she finds joy and comfort in her family and friends and grows strong enough to give some things – and some people – a second chance.
About the author
Rin-rin Yu, AB ’98, is a writer, author, photographer, communications strategist and award-winning magazine editor and television journalist who spent much of her career covering everything from waterparks to kitchen trends, politics, summer camps and corporate management. Born and raised in Westchester County, New York, she spent her childhood writing stories and playing the piano and flute. She earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental science from WashU, a master’s in journalism from Northwestern University and an MBA from the University of Southern California. She lives with her husband, two kids, tropical fish and a sea urchin outside Washington, D.C. in Montgomery County, Maryland, and splits her time between D.C. and Durham, North Carolina.
Goodbye, French Fry is a work of fiction based completely on Yu’s own childhood growing up in the suburbs of New York City. Her father worked for the United Nations and contemplated moving the family to one of the other U.N. offices around the world, and her close friend taught her lots of gymnastics moves in her backyard and at school. She had teachers and classmates who couldn’t pronounce her name, and a classmate who called her French Fry instead, for no good reason, for an entire summer. Growing up, she couldn’t find any books with American-born Chinese characters, and only a few for her own children, so she decided to write her own. Goodbye, French Fry is her first novel.
As a bonus for WashU readers, Lee Beaumont, the aforementioned protagonist, is named in honor of Yu’s first- and second-year housing on the South 40. Another character is Principal Liggett, where, Yu says, “a lot of my friends lived freshman year.”