by Wendy Wan-Long Shang
ages: 10+
First sentence: “There is a Chinese story that goes like this:”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Lucy is:

• the youngest of three children in a Chinese-American family. 
• almost twelve years old.
• more American than Chinese, preferring lasagna to Chinese food.
• fanatic about basketball, and pretty good too.
• about to share her room with Yi Po, the long-lost sister of her recently deceased grandmother.

All Lucy wants is to have the best year ever, but that seems doomed not to happen, especially since Yi Po and her strange Chinese ways have moved in everything seems to be going wrong. Somehow, though, between Chinese school, a bully at school, and having to share a room, Lucy finds that maybe the year isn’t as bad as she thought it might be.

This was a good, solid, fun read. Nothing spectacular or earth-shattering, but I really enjoyed the time spent with Lucy and her struggles to find a balance between her wants and interests and her heritage. She’s an enjoyable character, and the time which we spend with her is fun and interesting. I liked the way Shang handled the Chinese language and culture, mixing a bit of history and folklore along with the food and traditions seamlessly into the novel. It gave the book some heart, and I felt like I was learning without being preached to.

A good book.