Shadow of the Dragon

Shadow of the Dragon (1993), a young adult novel by Sherry Garland, chronicles the story of two Vietnamese boys and their life in Houston, Texas in the 1980s. Danny Vo is the Americanized son of two immigrants, while his cousin Sang Le, a recent refugee who moves in with the Vo family, has a hard time adjusting to his new country. Shadow of the Dragon was a Booklist Editors Choice as well as a winner on the ALA’s Best Book for Young Adults list. According to Publisher’s Weekly, “Garland's…expert dramatization and deliberate pacing build steadily for a thoroughly gripping, thought-provoking work.”

Danny Vo is helping his mom grocery shop to prepare for his cousin Sang Le’s homecoming party from a Hong Kong refugee camp. Leaving the grocery store, Danny notices two Vietnamese girls cornered by a group of Asian boys and goes to their rescue, marking his first encounter with the Cobra gang.

After picking his cousin up from the airport, the homecoming party is in full swing. Danny meets the two girls from the grocery store, Hong and Cue. Sang Le also meets the sisters. Pronouncing himself in love with Hong, he asks Danny to inquire after her relationship status. Danny realizes that his cousin will have a lot to learn as he adjusts to American life.



As Sang Le tries to acclimate to school and the English language, Danny grows closer to his crush, American girl Tiffany Marie Schultz, even though her brother is a skinhead.

During Tet, Vietnamese New Year, Sang Le gifts the family a piggy bank, saying that whatever money he makes, he will give to the family as thanks for taking him in. Sang Le expresses his struggle with American life to his cousin, Danny, and how he considers dropping out of school. At the New Year’s parade, the family is enjoying the festivities when they run into Nguyen Van Tho, the leader of the Cobra gang. Horrified to learn that Sang Le has befriended Tho, Danny tries to dissuade him not to hang out with him, but his pleas are ignored.

Shortly after Tet, Danny takes a job working at the fish market. He also goes on a double date with his cousin, his crush Tiffany, and the two Vietnamese sisters. When the date ends on a sour note, the cousins go to a billiards hall and again run into Cobra, who offers Sang Le a job.



Sang Le starts to miss classes at school due to “work.” Danny tries many times to convince Sang Le to quit Cobra, but his cousin stubbornly refuses, saying that he is doing it for their grandmother. Only after Sang Le comes home late one night and is caught by Ba does he promise to stop.

Danny’s dates with Tiffany are going well until he drops her off at home one night; her brother Frank and his friends beat Danny up. When Sang Le finds out, he offers to have his Cobra friends retaliate against Frank, but Danny tells him no.

That Friday, the boys are staying home playing a card game when Sang Le runs out for cigarettes. While he is gone, Danny calls Tiffany and finds out she is staying over at friend’s house. He makes plans to visit her, and as he runs out the door, notices his cousin bloody and beat-up outside the house.



After calling 911 and waiting for an ambulance, Sang Le is pronounced dead. Grief-stricken, Danny calls Tiffany and finds out she was the last person to see him. When the police ask Danny if he knows who could have murdered his cousin, he runs over to Tiffany’s to confirm his suspicions. When she defends her brother, he goes back to the police and tells them what he knows.

In the epilogue, the Vo family is packing up to move to their new house. Tiffany comes to apologize, but Danny realizes that they cannot reconcile their differences. He also learns that Cobra retaliated, murdering Brian, Sang Le’s murderer. The story closes as Danny tells the legend of dragons to his younger siblings as they drive to their new house.

Throughout the book, Danny expresses his feelings of being caught between two cultures, and his desire to either cast away his Vietnamese heritage or embrace it. Each family member in the book is a representation of the different ways immigrant people either assimilate or don’t into a dominant culture. Sang Le is the most vocal about the different ways of life, and he brings up points about freedom and choices.