THE IRON DRAGON NEVER SLEEPS
by Stephen Krensky & illustrated by John Fulweiler
The abortive strike staged in 1867 by Chinese workers on the Sierra Nevada portion of the transcontinental railroad, as perceived by 10-year-old Winnie Tucker, daughter of a Central Pacific mining engineer who is superintending the blasting of the Summit Tunnel. While the ease with which a friendship develops between Winnie and Lee Cheng, a young Chinese water carrier, seems somewhat implausible, the depictions of the hardships and hazards attendant upon railroad-building and of the prejudice and discrimination faced by the Chinese are authentic. An interesting adjunct to the study of Westward expansion, California history, or the Chinese-American experience. Impressionistic crosshatched drawings; afterword. (Fiction. 8-11)