Up until COVID, my family lived in China. In fact, my kids spent the first 6 years of their lives there, fluent in both language and culture. We miss it immensely and wish we could go back, even for a visit, but still await approval after so many years.

That’s why this book struck such a nerve for us. It’s the story of Amy Carmichael Kramer and her family’s move as missionaries from Wyoming to Taichung, Taiwan (I’ll completely ignore making comments about whether Taiwan is China or not, but the characters assume so). The culture shock Amy feels when she lands and tries to adjust were so familiar to us, it almost felt like being there.

This book touches on several important issues, including culture shock and cultural adaptation, what it means to be a missionary, and most prominently what it means to be a friend. It’s such a healthy book for any kid whose family has moved (internationally or not) and is a fantastic introduction to the emotional struggles people face when shifting cultures or (in my own kids’ case) when navigating the world as a third-culture kid (TCK).

The book’s title is strange but makes perfect sense as you read the story. Amy describes the familiar things in Taiwan as “peanut butter” and the rest as “chop suey.” The white friends at her international school who speak English, then, are “peanut butter friends,” and the Asian girls (even those who speak English and eat Snickers bars) and everything else unfamiliar to her in Taiwan is “chop suey.”

Does that sound culturally insensitive? Maybe, but as a reader who’s experienced this for myself, I don’t really care (and thankfully neither did the publisher), because it’s reality. Anyone who’s lived abroad and been treated like a foreigner (because you are a foreigner!) knows that such feelings, sentiments, and attempts to digest the weirdness going on all around you are only natural. It’s only those who’ve lived in one country all their lives that will consider this culturally insensitive (or worse). Don’t listen to people like that. They don’t know what they’re talking about.

One peanut-butter friend that Amy makes at this school is Jessica, a girl from Boston whose dad is there on business. She’s a total jerk, as I mentioned to my kids (ages 10 and 12) a few times as I read. My problem and bad example, however, was the same as Amy’s: I never considered why the girl was so mean. I just felt: “She’s a jerk. Steer clear.” In the end, we discover that Jessica’s incredibly broken inside: insecure, lonely, and scared because of all the moves that have made her unable to keep long-term friends, and also experiencing family problems that she tries to keep hidden.

Another friend she makes is a bit more chop suey, Mickey, a Taiwanese girl who grew up in the States and attends the same international school. Amy’s trouble is trying to behave like a Christian to both girls, being kind and friendly to each, though Mickey and Jessica (neither of them believers) despise each other. It’s a tug-of-war of little-girl friendships that I’d normally not love to read as 40-year-old man, but one that’s so true to life for my kids, especially against this cross-cultural backdrop.

Ultimately, Amy learns some valuable lessons about her new life as a missionary kid living in Taiwan. She writes one key lesson to her friend back in Wyoming towards the end of the book: “Maybe I’ll forget about being a good missionary and try to be a good Christian.” (160)

Another lesson come through her internal struggles about culture, living the American life in a foreign country. In fact, I’d describe this paragraph as “scathing,” especially when I’ve got certain Americans living in China in mind:

I learned something that weekend. Taiwan is a foreign country with a foreign language and foreign food. But a small piece of America hides inside that foreign country. You can find American schools and American restaurants and American-type stores in the Chinese city of Taichung. Some people live in a little American community in an American house. They drive through Taichung from one American spot to another, and they rarely see the real Taiwan, except through their car windows. (98-99)

One final lesson akin to this is about the change that’s supposed to take place in a person’s life when they move from one location to the next. Because life and situations change when a person moves internationally, they need to embrace the “different” and not be like the Americans just described, always afraid of the foreignness now surrounding them. Amy says:

I’d ignored the different things in Taiwan and made a little American world of my own where I could be comfortable… “Different” sounds exciting until you have to live with it every day. (147)

I have to admit, I haven’t had much fun since came to Taiwan, but maybe that’s because I’ve been afraid of anything that’s different. I’ve been trying to live my life like I’m still in America and I think that made me miss out on a lot. Different can be ok too. (160)

We really enjoyed this book and, even with the melodrama of 6th-grader friendships, I think it should be widely read by MKs, TCKs, and their parents alike. Author Brammer, a missionary to Taiwan herself, knows firsthand the struggles kids face when moving internationally, and she handles them delicately and honestly. I highly recommend it.

©2023 E.T.

Read More from JourneyForth Press:

• With Wings as Eagles by William Pinkston (1983)
• These Are My People by Mildred T. Howard (1984)
• Medallion by Dawn L. Watkins (1985)
• Derwood, Inc. by Jerri Massi (1986)
• A Dangerous Game by Jerri Massi (1986)
• Treasure in the Yukon by Jerri Massi (1986)
• With Daring Faith by Rebecca Henry Davis (1987)
• Courage by Darkness by Jerri Massi (1987)
• Some Summer! by Jean Vandervenne (1987)
• Llamas on the Loose by Jerri Massi (1988)
• The Runaway Princess by Milly Howard (1988)
• Abandoned by Jerri Massi (1989)
• A Question of Yams by Gloria Repp (1992)
• Brill of Exitorn by Peggy Downing (1994)
• Peanut Butter Friends in a Chop Suey World by Deb Brammer (1994)
• The Lost Prince by Peggy Downing (1995)
• Tales from Dust River Gulch by Tim Davis (1996)
• Camp Sierra Secret by Esther G. Wilkinson (1996)
• Chickadee Winter by Dawn L. Watkins (1999)
• Songbird by Nancy Lohr (2000)
• Nix by Penny McKnight (2006)
• Shield by Dawn Watkins (2008)