David Tung Can’t Have a Girlfriend Until He Gets into an Ivy League College

Gr 7-10–In wealthy Shark Beach, NJ, sophomore David faces parental pressure to become valedictorian of his majority Chinese American high school and attend an Ivy League college. The narrowest slivers of his GPA and competition with other students rule his days, and at night he works long hours at his family’s restaurant. David lives for ungraded Saturday Chinese school and his shady slacker friends there. When a popular Shark Beach girl invites David to a dance, surprise causes him to accept before remembering his parents forbid dating. While struggling for a solution, David begins to appreciate a Chinese school girl, Betty, who suffers no fools and has a Chinese American father and white mother. Can David possibly make everyone happy? This slice-of-life story spends the first chapters building David’s world. Acting as a tour guide for readers, David describes his background, schools, home, restaurant, teachers, classmates, relatives, and friends. Lin demonstrates David’s adeptness at code-switching and shows him seeing his world both as an insider, being Chinese American, and as an outsider, since his economic situation matches neither that of his wealthier Shark Beach or poorer Chinese school classmates. Many readers may see themselves in aspects of David’s highly pressured life, and will cheer him on in navigating his complex situation.