Product Description

Amy feels conflicted when her mother becomes an amah (a nanny) for the perfect Miss Stephanie. While her mother's at work, Amy has to watch her younger brothers and sisters, which means missing ballet practices. Amy wants to be a good daughter, but she also wants to keep her role in the upcoming dance production. Can she find a way to balance family obligations with her desire for independence?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #810010 in Books
• Published on: 2002-01-11
• Released on: 2002-01-11
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

From School Library Journal
Grade 4-7-Life mirrors art when Amy Chin, 12, begins to feel like Cinderella's mean stepsister, the part she is rehearsing in ballet class. Her mother has accepted a job as an Amah, or nanny, which results in increased responsibilities at home for the girl. Feeling resentful, Amy decides she won't like her mother's charge, 12-year-old Stephanie. However, her meeting with the girl and a family heirloom disaster help her realize that Cinderellas aren't always as perfect as they appear and that real magic is the ability to change yourself. A friend's grandmother provides a caring intergenerational relationship as well as information about Chinese culture. Readers will enjoy the ballet references as they explore the universal feelings of jealousy and relationships. A realistic story of a contemporary Chinese-American family with flaws and strengths.
Helen Foster James, University of California at San Diego
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Things have been tough in the Chin household since Amy's father died, but her mother's new job as an amah (nanny) for 12-year-old Stephanie, who is just Amy's age, may help. Unfortunately, it means that Amy must take on more responsibility for the house and her four younger siblings, and that she will have less time to prepare for her role as a wicked stepsister in her ballet school's performance of Cinderella. As it turns out, Amy begins to feel and act like the role she's getting ready for when it appears that sweet, "perfect" Stephanie is trying to take over the Chin family. The strained relationship between Amy and her "old world" mother is one of the strongest elements in this story, which clearly delineates the sort of struggle that can occur between generations in an immigrant family as well as what it feels like to be an outsider, even in your own home. A solid read. Stephanie Zvirin

From Kirkus Reviews
Revisiting characters from The Cook's Family (1998), Yep again explores personal and cultural conflicts arising between the generations in a Chinese-American family. Suddenly saddled with caring for four younger siblings after a wealthy businessman hires her widowed mother as a governessor amahfor his daughter, Stephanie, Amy Chin is forced to miss several ballet rehearsals for Cinderella, to listen to glowing accounts of Stephanie's sophistication, and to accept expensive clothing and other gifts from her. While gaining new insight into how Cinderella's stepsisters must have felt, Amy's understandable resentment is compounded by the news that Stephanie will be moving in while her father is away on a trip. Yep builds that feeling to fever pitch, then dispels it by casting Stephanie as a lonely child hurt by one parent's death and the other's neglect; becoming friends, Stephanie and Amy clear the air and mend some fences with their well-meaning parents in a climactic face-off. The characters, most of them familiar from previous appearances, are distinct if not particularly complex, the San Francisco setting is vividly drawn, and the issues are laid out in plain terms and tidily resolved. It's formulaic, but not entirely superficial. (Fiction. 10-13) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Amy and Stephanie
The Amah
By: Laurance Yep
Reviewed by: J. ...
Period: 6
This book is about a girl named Amy Chin and how her family doesn't have enough money until her mom gets a new job as a amah. Amy has to baby sit her sisters and brothers, which cause her to have to miss her ballet classes. The girl Mrs. Chin watches over is Miss Stephanie. Miss Stephanie seems to be taking away Amy's family and Amy starts to get jealous. But the worst thing is that Stephanie is going to move in with the Chin's while her dad is away at a business trip. Later, Amy and Stephanie start to get along and Amy finds out why Stephanie is so kind to her family.
I liked this book because it shows how friendships shouldn't be based on what the person look or acts on the outside but how the person is on the inside. In the beginning, when Amy first hears about Stephanie, she is already starting to hate her because she takes away her family, especially her mom, and also her time for ballet practices. Then when Amy is asked to go to a ballet performance with Stephanie, Amy questions about it because it's a performance that she really wants to see but doesn't want Stephanie thinking that she likes her. Then when Amy finds out that Stephanie is going to live with her and she has to clean the whole house for Stephanie, Amy becomes furious. "And I'm looking forward to staying with you," Stephanie said. When Stephanie comes to live with Amy, Amy finds out that Stephanie isn't the way she thinks she is. Stephanie is actually a really nice person that tries to get people to like her so that was why she always gave her things to Amy's family, So Amy and Stephanie become good friends.
I also liked this book because it shows how a family has to work together. Since Amy found out that her mom got a new job and that she had to give up her ballet practices to baby sit her brothers and sisters she was not happy about it but listened to her mother anyway. After the first day of her mom's job Amy was already feeling sick of Miss Stephanie. Amy's mom always said good things about Miss Stephanie and it made Amy look bad. Amy soon started to question her mother's love towards her. Finally, I had a name for the ache inside. "Mama, don't you love me?" In the end, Amy and her mom started to work things out between them and everything got better.
My favorite part of the book is when Amy stands up for Stephanie against Stephanie's father. After Stephanie's father found out about the things that Stephanie was taking from him to give to the Chin's, he was furious. He fired Mrs. Chin but Stephanie didn't think that was right. So Amy took charge and stepped in front of Stephanie's father and started to question him about Stephanie and he didn't know the answers. Amy finally got Stephanie's father to admit that he needed Mrs. Chin and that he needed to spend more time with is daughter. So in the end, Stephanie and her father start to get to know each other better and Amy and her mom also do the same.

The Amah
I read The Amah as a school project. In The Amah Amy's mom becomes an amah, a special kind of babysitter, for a girl named Stephanie. Since Mama spends so much time with Stephanie, twelve-year-old Amy has to take care of her four brothers and sisters in the afternoons. But this means skipping ballet classes, which are VERY important to Amy. And on top of that, Mama and Amy's siblings seem to love staphanie more than her! Amy feels cheated. But she learns that you should try to change yourself, and not only your peers.
Even though The Amah is a good book, I felt that it was a little un-fair to Amy. Everybody expected so much from her! That's why I only gave it three stars. (But i would've given it three and a half stars if I could've.)

Another great book by Laurence Yep
As with many of Yep's books, THE AMAH takes place in the San Francisco China Town. It is about a girl name Amy. Amy's mother has found work as an "Amah" for an American girl named Stephanie. Amy gets jealous of her mother's love for Stephanie. Amy also needs to sacrifice some of her ballet lessons for her mom to work. This book is a companion to Ribbon