  | Ghosts, toast, and other hazards Author: Tan, Susan | |
| Price: $22.58 | ||
Summary:
When her stepfather leaves and her family loses their home to fire, twelve-year-old Chinese-American Monica, or Mo, struggles with anxiety, but the chance to hunt an elephant ghost--and the promise of a new friend--help convince her to live a little more dangerously.
| Accelerated Reader Information: Interest Level: MG Reading Level: 4.50 Points: 6.0 Quiz: 519686 |
Reviews:
Kirkus Reviews (+) (02/15/23)
School Library Journal (+) (11/24/23)
Booklist (02/15/23)
The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (00/03/23)
The Hornbook (+) (00/03/23)
Full Text Reviews:
Booklist - 02/15/2023 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. - Copyright 2023 Booklist.
School Library Journal - 11/24/2023 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 - Copyright 2023 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.
