I Grew My Boobs in China

Pros: candid stories, lots of cultural details, reads like a novel, good pacing

Cons: limited descriptions of sites of interest, no pictures

After getting divorced, Savannah's mother decides she wants to see the world and starts planning a year long family trip. At 14, a year away from school and friends doesn't appeal to Savannah, who fights the trip every step of the way. Until, in China, she starts to see that maybe seeing the world - and getting a different kind of education - isn't such a bad thing.

This is a highly personal story, from Savannah's point of view, highlighting her complaints and moments of personal discovery. While she starts off a bit whiny, the author does a great job of showing her state of mind without annoying the reader. It makes the people real as you read their experiences, which often deserve a few whines. As someone who's backpacked in several countries I'm amazed at the privations they dealt with while crossing China and Mongolia.

This book chronicles the first few months of what was supposed to be a one year trip and ended up being four. It covers their adventures starting with the decision to go, including getting rid of all their pets and dealing with the older brother's sudden bout of cancer, to their layover sleeping in the airport in Korea on the way to Hong Kong, through China and into Mongolia. It ends with them heading off to Russia after numerous adventures.

It reads like a novel, with dialogue and crises every few pages. Grace also maintains interest by adding reminiscence scenes during their travel to things that happened earlier, like the reason for her parents divorce. The descriptions tend more towards the family's impressions of places and the harsh circumstances of the trip (long overnight trains and buses where sleep is difficult, unpleasant to non-existent bathrooms, physically strenuous days, unique snacks and severe culture shock), rather than to the famous, and not so famous, sites they visited. For example, you get more description of how difficult it was to climb the thousands of steps of Emei Shan than the view at the top or the more well known city of Xian and the terra cotta warriors. Indeed, she focuses on places most people haven't been and won't go, which again increases the interest factor.

The only real downside to the book was the lack of photos. It would have been awesome to read about a particular place and see several photos of the location. Pictures are up on the author's website (www.sihpromatum.com), but there aren't any in the physical or ebook (available on kindle only) editions.