The story starts off when Deming Guo is being picked up from school after staying late by his mother Polly. His mother works at a nail salon working hard to provide for her and her soon. She hates her job because it takes a strain on her body and her hands are often in pain. We find out that Deming Guo lives in an apartment with his mom, her boyfriend Leon, his best friend Michel and his mother Vivian. They make small conversation at first and we learn a little about Polly. We learned that she stopped going to school sometime when she was in the 8th grade. She was firm with his grades because she wanted him to better than what she did but she was a loving mother. She enjoyed traveling to new places.
Polly tells him on their walk home that they will be moving to Florida very soon. Polly got a new better job that could lead to more opportunities for them the news that they are leaving to a different state is hard for Deming to hear because he does not want to leave Michel and the others. Throughout the day Deming thinks about all the things that Florida may have and he starts to get excited about he and his mother moving to Florida. The next morning, he asks her when they will move but his mother’s responds surprise him. His mother tells him that they are not moving to Florida. That is the last conversation that he has with his mother for a long time. When he and his best friend get home that day from school, they notice that his mother is not there. The boys continue eating, watching t.v. and hanging around the house until someone else gets home. When Vivian and Leon get home, they are shocked to see that the boys did not have a proper dinner yet and that they could not find Polly or get a hold of her. After a few days and his mom not coming home he gets a taste of freedom. For a young boy to not his mom around it meant that he did not have to go to school, he can eat as much pizza that he wanted and do things that his mom normally would not let him do. After a while and not getting answers of where his mom. Is at he gets scared that she is in danger and does anything to get her back. He tries his hardest in school to get better grades and stays out of trouble he even tries to be nice to a classmate who is not always nice to him. But nothing he does gets his mom back.
The book skips into ten years of Deming’s life and he is at a concert with his friend, Roland, to perform on stage. While waiting backstage, he is drinking more than he should. While on stage Deming notices that he does not know the songs very well and runs of to china town. He gets frustrated when a woman asks him directions and he cannot give it to her because he forgot most of his native language. While he is there, he goes through his emails on his phone and notices one from his old best friend Michel. He says in the email that he knows some information on his lost mother. Deming ignores his email. He could have ignored it because he feared upsetting his adoptive parents or finding the real reason his mom disappeared may hurt him.
The next day he goes out to have breakfast with his adopted parents. The meeting we find out more about what he is going through and some of the thoughts that his parent have. His parents are professors at a Carlough College. Peter talks about how upsetting it is to him that many of the minority students are pushing more ethnic classes and how their protests are disruptive to his class. Peter says a few racist comments and Deming calls him out on it. This conversation shows how out of touch his new parents are and that they do not understand that Demings and others see things differently in the world and are treated differently because they are not white. We also learn that Deming has a gambling problem and is not doing so well in school at the moment. He borrowed a lot of money from his friend Angel that he cannot pay back. He values his friendship with her because she relates to him because she is also a Chines-American who was adopted. She understands him in ways that his new parents do not. His parents pulled strings and wants him to apply to the college that they work at so that they can keep an eye on him and make sure that he is not gambling and going to meetings. He agrees to do the paperwork because he does not want to disappoint them but does not tell them that he may be able to find his real mom
The book goes back into his childhood. Deming is really upset that Polly left him because at a time she promised never to leave him again. In one of the first few chapters Deming is remember a time when he first reconnects with his mom in New York. We learned that Polly gave Deming to his grandfather to be raised why she lived in New York. Deming and his grandfather lived in China at the time. When his grandfather passed away, he stayed with his mother. On one of the days out together she promised that she would never leave him again.
After a while and his mom not coming back in a few months Vivian takes him to a different place alone. She tells him that because his mother left that she is unable to provide for both of the boys and that she would one day get him soon. After a while of him staying with a foster family who he comfortable with he learns that he has to leave because he gets adopted. His adopted parents’ names are Peter and Kay. His new adopted parents slowly start to change him in ways that he is not comfortable with and are slowly changing the things in his life that makes him Deming. They would tell him to speak English any time he would talk in his native language and started to call him Daniel because it was easier for them. By doing so they are taking away his identity and not recognizing his culture as a Chinse- American child. We now understand how he was adopted.
So after he is adopted and they slowly start to change him so that he can fit better in an American family. He hears how Peter and Kay both find it hard raising him in their area because of his race. He also hears that his real mom moved back to china. He does not know for sure if she really did nor how they got that information. We also learn how he became friend and when he first meets Angel. His parents took him to New York to meet friends and their adopted daughter Angle. He was not her friend at first understandably but later their adventures and common life brought them close together. The two even goes to his old neighborhood with anyone knowing. That is when he learns that there was a new family in his home.
Back to the present time He finial responds back to the email. He meets up with Michael and learns about some of the new things that been happening in his life. The two meet up with Vivian and Michael is hurt by seeing her even though she is happy to see him. At this point he learns more information of his mom and how he sent to foster care. The reason was because his mom was in a lot of debt when she disappeared, and it effected Vivian and gives the number to Polly’s old boyfriend Leon to him to get more answers.
The Leavers by Lisa Ko
This is a great overview of the first half of the book. I am unpleasantly surprised at some of the things that I have been reading throughout the first part. The ignorance of some of the characters have left me unsettled. I have not yet gotten to the part of him meeting back up with Michael but am definitely anxious to see what happens next. This book subtly highlights some of the things that are often not talked about or forgotten about. We feel for Deming and his struggle to figure out what happened and how to manage to fit in.
Thanks for a great summary of the first half of the novel. I was shocked by the direction the story took, especially with how Deming must have felt when his mother failed to return and left him with Leon and his sister. The entire story of his childhood was something I had a hard time understanding and would not have known how to deal with if it were me. To think that this could have happened to thousands of children is truly disturbing. It was my understanding that book was set sometime in between the 90’s and 2000’s as I did not think that this kind of thing was talked about much when I was growing up. It really brought a lot of light to what adopted children can experience, especially when they are adopted through the foster care system.
A very complete summary of the first half of the book to say the least. You touched on some very big themes in the novel and you presented them in a way that was both easy to follow and allowed me to build each on top of each other. I personally enjoyed how you recapped the book but always was able to relate it back to either, his personal identity, his cultural identity, or his foster parents planned identity for him. It gave me an opportunity to see the events of the novel through different lenses and draw from multiple sources on the events in the novel. Well Done!
I found your presentation to be very detailed and informative, which I appreciated a lot! I found it disturbing that they wanted to change who he truly was as a person in order to fit in in the United States. I know of this happening to an old classmate of mine, whom I went to primary school with, and they struggled adjusting to their new ‘selves’. Thanks for making a great presentation!
I really like the detail in your book summary presentation, this book kind of unexpected to me with all the turns, especially when his foster parents made him change his name, I have never known any people who are foster kids that have parents make them change their identity, that must be sad because even as a child, you know who you are and your family, so when the dynamic changes, it can be very difficult for children to figure out they are later in life.
This is an excellent summary of the book’s first half. Some of the things I’ve been reading in the first section have caught me by surprise. The inexperience of some of the characters has made me uncomfortable. I haven’t yet been to the point where he meets up with Michael again, so I’m excited to see what happens next. This book indirectly brings to light some of the problems that are often neglected or dismissed. We sympathize with Deming as he tries to find out what happened and how to fit in.