Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet Characters

Pretty much the whole world might be stacked against him, but Henry Lee, a Chinese American boy growing up in Seattle, is still the star of our show. As the protagonist in Hotel on the Corner of Bi...

An American Girl Even though everyone else sees Keiko as a Japanese girl and the enemy, she's insistent on the fact that she's American—just like all her white peers. She doesn't deserve to be tr...

Family Matters Marty Lee is Henry's college-aged son and the only family Henry has left now that his wife has died. Even though Marty and Henry love each other a lot, they still have some issues co...

When Henry meets his soon-to-be daughter-in-law, he's surprised to see that she isn't Chinese. This passes quickly, though, and he immediately takes to her warm and friendly nature. For her part, S...

Sheldon—an African American street musician whom Henry passes on his way to and from school—may seem like an unlikely friend for a little Chinese American boy like Henry. But Sheldon immediatel...

Henry's father is definitely a strong traditionalist and a tough guy. He expects his wife and son to obey him completely, and he gets really mad when he learns that Henry is friends with a Japanese...

There are ways in which Henry's mother is traditional—for instance, she only speaks Chinese and is subservient to her husband—but she's still a caring and loving mother, too. Even when she foll...

Henry is super nervous when he first meets Keiko's parents, but over time he gets to know them and finds that he's comfortable with them—in some ways, more so than he is with his own parents. The...

At first, Mrs. Beatty, the no-nonsense lunch lady, doesn't seem to care what happens to Henry. But over time, he recognizes that although Mrs. Beatty is gruff, she cares about Henry and Keiko and w...

Henry and Keiko are the only Asian kids at an otherwise all-white school, and they're harassed pretty frequently for this by a boy named Chaz and his posse of friends. These kids are just bullies w...

When the book opens up, Henry Lee's wife, Ethel, is already dead. Still, she definitely leaves an imprint on the lives of her family members—Henry and Marty are having a hard time with her absenc...