''Dragon's Gate'' is a

children's A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger ...

historical novel Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other t ...

Laurence Yep Laurence Michael Yep (; born June 14, 1948) is an American writer. He is known for his children's books, having won the Newbery Honor twice for his ''Golden Mountain'' series. In 2005, he received the biennial Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal for his c ...

, published by

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News C ...

in 1995. It inaugurated the ''Golden Mountain Chronicles'' and is the third chronicle in narrative sequence among ten published as of 2012. Yep and ''Dragon's Gate'' won the

Newbery Medal The John Newbery Medal, frequently shortened to the Newbery, is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to the author of "the most distinguished cont ...

award in 1994.Newbery Medal reference
/ref>

Plot

Otter, a fourteen-year-old Chinese boy growing up during the cyanide wars and the oppression of the Manchu dynasty. Otter wishes to travel to America, to the Land of the Golden Mountain called California. He longs to travel to California, so he can assist his uncle and father, in the doing of the Great Work, in order to take back their country, yet he decides with much disdain to remain in Three Willows to be with his mother. After accidentally killing a Manchu, Otter's life is in danger, so he was sent to America to join his father and uncle. Otter enthusiastically left for America, only to find that the reality of being a Chinese immigrant meant working in the brutal cold and other awful conditions. Otter is filled with disgust and undertakes the seemingly impossible task of climbing the Tiger, the mountain which for so long has kept his people working in bitter conditions, ascending above the cloud layer to prevent an avalanche, which results in the loss of his beloved uncle. Taken aback by his loss, Otter is determined to finish what his Uncle started, even if it means withstanding the bitter cold for the rest of his life.

''Golden Mountain Chronicles''

The

family saga The family saga is a genre of literature which chronicles the lives and doings of a family or a number of related or interconnected families over a period of time. In novels (or sometimes sequences of novels) with a serious intent, this is often ...

follows the Young family, initially in China. ''Dragons of Silk'' (2011) spans a few generations and brings the story to the present; nine previous novels have been dated 1849 to 1995. # ''The Serpent's Children'', set in 1849 (1984) # ''Mountain Light'', 1855 (1985) # ''Dragon's Gate'', 1867 (1993) # ''The Traitor'', 1885 (2003) # '' Dragonwings'', 1903 (1975) # ''Dragon Road'', 1939 (2007); originally ''The Red Warrior'' # ''Child of the Owl'', 1960 (1977) # ''Sea Glass'', 1970 (1979) # ''Thief of Hearts'', 1995 (1995) # ''Dragons of Silk'', 1835-2011 (2011) Four of the ten historical novels are among Yep's five works most widely held in WorldCat libraries.WorldCat identities record
/ref>

References

{{Reflist, 30em 1995 novels