Ghosts, Toast, and Other Hazards

February 15, 2023
Grades 3-6 APALA Honor-winning author Tan's latest follows sixth-grader Mo, who moves to a new town with her mom and her little sister, CeCe. They're moving in with Uncle Ray, a self--described "aging Chinese hippie," and they're one of the only Asian American families in New Warren. Mo struggles with microaggressions about her ethnicity at school and intense anxiety, while her mom is having trouble getting out of bed each day after her divorce from Mo's stepdad. Mo takes care of CeCe and tries not to be an additional burden, but then a ghost elephant starts haunting Mo's dreams. Tan's emotional story explores different themes of family with humor and a paranormal adventure, and as Mo tries to understand the significance behind the elephant in her dreams, she starts to learn some troubling things about her new town's history, especially the Chinese workers exploited during the heights of its industrial past. This engaging, multilayered story about family history, community, and nefarious ghosts will find plenty of appeal for middle-graders who like fantasies grounded in reality.

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Starred review from February 27, 2023
An apprehensive girl ventures into unknown territory in new environs—and within herself—to uncover the truth behind a local legend in this thrilling otherworldly novel from Tan (the Cilla Lee-Jenkins series). After her stepdad leaves, Chinese American 12-year-old Mo Lin, her five-year-old half sister CeCe, and their mother move to a new town to live with Uncle Ray. Helping with her younger sister, watching her mom navigate depression, and facing racism in the largely white Massachusetts town makes the transition a difficult one for Mo, as does her heightened fear of fire following a toast incident at the family’s prior home. Strange dreams and bouts of sleepwalking add to her worries, especially when they turn out to involve the ghost of a circus elephant named Maudie, who perished in a local fire and whose spirit lives on via a ghostly white dog. When unsettling occurrences begin happening around town, Mo teams up with new friend Nathaniel, a ghost enthusiast who is white and Jewish, to investigate, finding that it takes living a little dangerously to uncover truths about their town’s erased history. Mo’s sincere first-person narrative portrays the way that finding emotional safety—via attending therapy, and bonding with Uncle Ray over music—gives way to a feeling of peace. Ages 8–12. Agent: Daniel Lazar, Writers House.

Starred review from February 15, 2023
A 12-year-old Chinese American girl learns to cope with grief, anxiety, and uncertainty in the wake of difficult life changes. After Mo Lin's stepfather leaves, her family moves in with her Uncle Ray in a new town. Having a depressed, overwhelmed, and emotionally absent mother means it's up to Mo to take care of 5-year-old half sister CeCe and herself, even though she is grieving. What's more, the kids at her new middle school are racist and hostile. Her sense of safety in tatters, Mo sees danger everywhere: Even something as mundane as a piece of toast might trigger a house fire. Most unsettling, Maudie the elephant, who died in a local circus fire years ago, keeps haunting her dreams. Mo finds allies in Uncle Ray, a gentle, perceptive man who shows her how music can provide solace; Nathaniel, a ghost-obsessed Jewish classmate; and Lavender, a Black librarian who opens her eyes to diverse, often overlooked stories from history. As Mo tries to determine what Maudie needs from her, she gains insights into the ghosts haunting her own family that must be laid to rest. Triggering past events in Mo's life are revealed slowly, echoing her evolving ability to process them. The characterization is particularly strong; Mo displays a full range of emotions, from grief to anger, avoidance to acceptance. Her mother and Uncle Ray are fully fleshed, complex characters as well. A realistic and deeply moving portrayal of a family's journey through a challenging life transition. (Fiction. 8-12)

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from March 1, 2023
Monica "Mo" Lin, a sixth-grade Chinese American girl, has moved with her mother and half-sister to the (fictional) small town of New Warren, Massachusetts, to live with her "aging Chinese hippie" great-uncle, Ray. Mo struggles with grief over her stepfather's abandonment and with anxiety as she tries to take care of her family with little help from her detached mother. Then a circus elephant begins to appear in her dreams. Confronted with a supernatural mystery surrounding the elephant's death in a century-old town fire, Mo joins with classmate Nathaniel in a plot to solve the mystery and bring the elephant peace. She finds in Nathaniel an impulsive risk-taker who earns and then breaks her trust before their final confrontation with a malevolent ghost. Mo's quintessentially middle-grade voice pivots from no-nonsense (when she's in family-caretaking mode) to frightened (in the face of ghost-hunting) to sad (when confronting the state of her family); as one of the few non-white people in town, she also deals with frequent microaggressions. Tan's narrative employs rich sensory details that immediately hook readers and don't let go until the very last sentence. It turns out, as Mo and Nathaniel discover, that friendship, in all its messy glory, can be one of the ­biggest mysteries of all. J. Elizabeth Mills

(Copyright 2023 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

January 1, 2023
Monica "Mo" Lin, a sixth-grade Chinese American girl, has moved with her mother and half-sister to the (fictional) small town of New Warren, Massachusetts, to live with her "aging Chinese hippie" great-uncle, Ray. Mo struggles with grief over her stepfather's abandonment and with anxiety as she tries to take care of her family with little help from her detached mother. Then a circus elephant begins to appear in her dreams. Confronted with a supernatural mystery surrounding the elephant's death in a century-old town fire, Mo joins with classmate Nathaniel in a plot to solve the mystery and bring the elephant peace. She finds in Nathaniel an impulsive risk-taker who earns and then breaks her trust before their final confrontation with a malevolent ghost. Mo's quintessentially middle-grade voice pivots from no-nonsense (when she's in family-caretaking mode) to frightened (in the face of ghost-hunting) to sad (when confronting the state of her family); as one of the few non-white people in town, she also deals with frequent microaggressions. Tan's narrative employs rich sensory details that immediately hook readers and don't let go until the very last sentence. It turns out, as Mo and Nathaniel discover, that friendship, in all its messy glory, can be one of the biggest mysteries of all.

(Copyright 2023 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from November 24, 2023

Gr 4-8-Mo is haunted by the fallout of her mother's messy divorce, and by a minor toaster fire which symbolizes, in a way, the fiery finale of their peaceful life. As this novel begins, Mo is starting school in a new town, living with her "Chinese hippie" uncle, caring for five-year-old sister Cece, and nervously monitoring her profoundly depressed mother's own shaky adjustment to their upheaval. On top of it all, Mo begins to have hazy dreams about a sad-eyed elephant. With quirky classmate Nathaniel, a self-proclaimed ghost expert, they dig into the elephant's well-documented local history and dramatic death. Their discoveries lead them to explore the conflicted heritage of New Warren, a town with a whitewashed self-image, built through the work of Black Americans and economically buoyed by Chinese laborers. Tan's prose captures Mo's preteen mindset perfectly, wavering between profound anxiety and bravery, and bordering on carelessness. The elephant-ghost exorcism Mo and Nathaniel undertake illuminates their interior experiences of complex grief, and the culmination of their quest weaves the threads of the multi-pronged narrative into a hard, hopeful conclusion. Mo and family are Chinese American, Nathaniel is white and Jewish, and the archival librarian that moves their quest forward is Black. Mo's supportive, thoughtful Uncle Ray is queer, and Mo decides to ask a girl on a date in the book's conclusion. VERDICT A poignant, deeply personal adventure for thoughtful readers.-Emilia Packard

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