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Making Friends with Billy Wong by Augusta Scattergood







Making Friends with Billy Wong is a middle grade fiction novel by Augusta Scattergood. Set in rural Arkansas during the early 1950's, this book is about accepting people for who they are, not what they look like.

Sex: None.

Language: None.

Drug/Alcohol Use: None.

Violence/Gore/Frightening Scenes/Death: The Chinese grocery store is vandalized. A lot of bullying takes places, especially to Billy Wong, just because he's Chinese. Two children are living all alone because their mother is in the hospital.

Final Note: This was such a lovely book! I grew up in the Delta and didn't realize how many Chinese Americans lived and ran businesses in Arkansas and Mississippi. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about this part of history. Azalea was a wonderful leading lady. She was compassionate not only to Billy Wong, but also to his bully, who had a rough home life. I highly recommend this book for kids in grades 4-8!

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