“Starry River of the Sky” by Grace Lin is an amazing book. There are plenty of interesting Chinese stories and loving characters that you sympathize for. The story begins with a boy named Rendi arriving in the village of Clear Sky in a merchant’s dusty cart. Oddly, his only possessions are a cloth bag and beautiful porcelain rice bowl. However, when the merchant is giving a gang of wine to an innkeeper in the village, Rendi is discovered and thrown out of the cart. The innkeeper sees this and asks if Rendi wants a job, to help with chores around the inn. Rendi sees no other choice but to accept and helps him push the gang of wine inside the inn. After that, he meets the innkeeper (Master Chao’s) daughter, Peiyi. He arrives in a time where adults have to drink wine and little kids have to paint the 王 symbol on their heads to protect them from the Noxious Animals, because it is the Day of Five Poisons. Peiyi shows him around the inn and tells him about the Stone Pancake, which is a huge stone field stretching out into the horizon, seeming to never end. Peiyi tells him it is there because her ancestor moved a mountain that was once on the Stone Pancake. Rendi scoffs and tells her that is impossible. They dislike each other strongly. Later in the story we discover three more characters, under the name of Madame Chang, Mr. Shan, and the toad. We also find out more about Rendi’s backstory, and why the stone pancake ACTUALLY means, along with heart wrenching plot twists that will tear your heart. You will gasp along with the characters, shout with them, cry with them, laugh with them. I loved this book and I hope you did too.

“Starry River of the Sky” by Grace Lin is an amazing book. There are plenty of interesting Chinese stories and loving characters that you sympathize for. The story begins with a boy named Rendi arriving in the village of Clear Sky in a merchant’s dusty cart. Oddly, his only possessions are a cloth bag and beautiful porcelain rice bowl. However, when the merchant is giving a gang of wine to an innkeeper in the village, Rendi is discovered and thrown out of the cart. The innkeeper sees this and asks if Rendi wants a job, to help with chores around the inn. Rendi sees no other choice but to accept and helps him push the gang of wine inside the inn. After that, he meets the innkeeper (Master Chao’s) daughter, Peiyi. He arrives in a time where adults have to drink wine and little kids have to paint the 王 symbol on their heads to protect them from the Noxious Animals, because it is the Day of Five Poisons. Peiyi shows him around the inn and tells him about the Stone Pancake, which is a huge stone field stretching out into the horizon, seeming to never end. Peiyi tells him it is there because her ancestor moved a mountain that was once on the Stone Pancake. Rendi scoffs and tells her that is impossible. They dislike each other strongly. Later in the story we discover three more characters, under the name of Madame Chang, Mr. Shan, and the toad. We also find out more about Rendi’s backstory, and why the stone pancake ACTUALLY means, along with heart wrenching plot twists that will tear your heart. You will gasp along with the characters, shout with them, cry with them, laugh with them. I loved this book and I hope you did too.

Hi there! I’m back after a very long time. I found this website when I was randomly surfing the web, and I remembered I had written my username and password somewhere… so here I am! Since I don’t know a lot of you that well, I’m just going to say a few questions, you can reply if you want to. 1) What is your favorite color? 2) What is your favorite animal? 3) If you know about Pokemon, what is your favorite Pokemon? 4) What is your favorite book and movie? 5) If you have read Harry Potter, what house are you in? Here are my answers: 1) Black 2) Tigers or red pandas I guess? 3) Cyndaquil or Pichu 4) Favorite book is “See you in the Cosmos” by Jack Cheng and favorite movie… well I guess The Mandalorian because I’m a star wars fan as well? Maybe some of the new movies like Encanto, Turning Red, I don’t know… 5) The quiz told me I’m in Ravenclaw. Not sure if thats accurate… anyway, thank you for reading this post and I’d appreciate if you reply and tell me your answers! ^_^

Thanks for the recommendations! I have read Harry Potter, KOTLC, but not the others! I’ll be sure to check em out sometime soon. :)

I honestly only picked this book because I thought the cover was interesting. However, this book was so much more than I thought it would be. (I also learned a lot of Spanish from this book, haha). Efren is a normal seventh grader, straight As and a perfect attendance record. He has everything anyone could wish for— caring parents, annoying yet cute siblings, and a best friend, David (sometimes referred to as “El Periquito Blanco” due to the colorful clothes he wears). Well, he might be poor, but his Ama (mom) makes it feel like the house is bigger than it seems with her joyful attitude, her strong hands, and her care for the family. Until one day. Efren was helping David with his campaign posters (David had decided to run for president). He arrived home late but when he entered his house, something was wrong. The twins (Max and Mia, his siblings) were missing. At first he assumed that Ama had brought them back to the playground to play, so he didn’t ponder it for too long. After reading for over an hour, though, he started to get worried. Thats when he realized Ama was missing, after discovering a note that said his neighbor had the twins. His Ama had been DEPORTED, meaning she was now across the border in Mexico taken by the ICE because she wasn’t a “true citizen” in the United States. Life got harder for Efren after that. Taking care of the twins HIMSELF, with his father working overtime to earn money, having to make food and earn money, and still help his friend manage his campaign. Lots of things happen in between here and I won’t spoil it for you… however this is an amazing and heartwarming book and my heart really ached when Efren couldn’t tell the truth about Ama getting deported to Max and Mia, when David told Efren he didn’t want to be friends with him anymore, sympathized when so many loved ones in Efren’s life was deported… I think you’ll have a fun time reading this book. :)

I honestly only picked this book because I thought the cover was interesting. However, this book was so much more than I thought it would be. (I also learned a lot of Spanish from this book, haha). Efren is a normal seventh grader, straight As and a perfect attendance record. He has everything anyone could wish for— caring parents, annoying yet cute siblings, and a best friend, David (sometimes referred to as “El Periquito Blanco” due to the colorful clothes he wears). Well, he might be poor, but his Ama (mom) makes it feel like the house is bigger than it seems with her joyful attitude, her strong hands, and her care for the family. Until one day. Efren was helping David with his campaign posters (David had decided to run for president). He arrived home late but when he entered his house, something was wrong. The twins (Max and Mia, his siblings) were missing. At first he assumed that Ama had brought them back to the playground to play, so he didn’t ponder it for too long. After reading for over an hour, though, he started to get worried. Thats when he realized Ama was missing, after discovering a note that said his neighbor had the twins. His Ama had been DEPORTED, meaning she was now across the border in Mexico taken by the ICE because she wasn’t a “true citizen” in the United States. Life got harder for Efren after that. Taking care of the twins HIMSELF, with his father working overtime to earn money, having to make food and earn money, and still help his friend manage his campaign. Lots of things happen in between here and I won’t spoil it for you… however this is an amazing and heartwarming book and my heart really ached when Efren couldn’t tell the truth about Ama getting deported to Max and Mia, when David told Efren he didn’t want to be friends with him anymore, sympathized when so many loved ones in Efren’s life was deported… I think you’ll have a fun time reading this book. :)