Name of a book for pre-teens...?

Question

I read it when I was about 8. The protangonist is a young man who has been adopted from a South East Asian country--perhaps Vietnam. He is dealing with the fact that he is learning martial arts, but all the training and meditation doesn't help when he's being bullied at school for being different.

He feels he doesn't fit in and that he feels a great deal of alienation from his adoptive family. He is also one of the middle children. Of course it all ends happily when he confronts the bully and wins. It's about 50-75 pages in length.

Can't remember the name, the author, or the names of any of the charaters. I know this is rather vague, but I thought I'd try it.

Answer 1

I found a few possibilities in the WorldCat library database:

A bundle of sticks /
Pat Mauser McCord; Gail Owens
1982 1st ed.
English Book : Fiction : Juvenile audience 169 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.
New York : Atheneum, ; ISBN: 068930899X 9780689308994
At the mercy of the class bully, a fifth grader is sent to a martial arts school where he learns techniques to defend himself as well as a philosophy that allows him not to fight.


Black belt /
Matt Faulkner
2000
English Book : Fiction : Primary school 1 v. (unpaged) : col. ill. ; 21 x 26 cm.
New York : Knopf, ; ISBN: 037580157X (trade) 9780375801570 (trade) 0375901574 (lib. bdg.) 9780375901577 (lib. bdg.)
After hiding in a karate school to escape a bully, Bushi wakes up in another time and learns from a karate master that intelligence can be more powerful than mere strength.


Find the power! /
Dean Hughes; Dennis Lyall
1994 1st Bullseye Books ed.
English Book : Fiction : Juvenile audience 101 p. : ill. ; 20 cm.
New York : Bullseye Books, ; ISBN: 0679843590 : 9780679843597
Fifth-grader Ben Riddle is a brown belt in karate, but when the school bully starts hassling him, Ben must look within himself to learn his true strength.


Moves /
Douglas C Horn
1995
English Book : Fiction : Elementary and junior high school 189 p. ; 22 cm.
Unionville, N.Y. : Royal Fireworks Press, ; ISBN: 0880921501 9780880921503 088092151X (lib. bdg.) 9780880921510 (lib. bdg.)
When 10-year-old Hiro moves with his family from Japan to Montana he finds himself an outsider in a new and strange place. He also encounters a bully in his new school. Eventually, with help from an American friend in his judo class, he overcomes him.

I hope one of them is the right one!

Answer 2

Arabian nights

Answer 3

Sorry, I don't know it. But hope you find it...it sounds interesting. If you can tell me about [e-mail]. Thanks.