(3) 4-6 This novel in verse, based on the author's own past, works both as a cohesive narrative of Russell's "writer's journey" and as snapshots of childhood memories. Standout poems include "mr. hon" and "secret wish." Russell skillfully translates her experiences from the personal to the universal: "But I do not mind / being a little duck, / always calling / 'Wait for me! Wait for me!'" Glos.

Reviewer: Rebecca Hachmyer

(4) 4-6 Illustrated by Jonathan T. Russell. As were First Apple, Water Ghost, and Lichee Tree, this fourth novel featuring spirited heroine Ying is rich with cultural details of 1940s rural China. Now eleven, Ying faces an arranged marriage and separation from her ailing grandmother, who has raised her. A somewhat overlong chase sequence and an anticlimactic tying up of loose ends won't detract too much from readers' interest in Ying's fate. Glos.

Reviewer: Tanya D. Auger