Status
Book Bag 16
Publication
G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers (2021), 400 pages
Library's review
Jo Kuan leads a double life: a public role as a quiet lady’s maid and a secret one as the voice behind the hottest advice column in 1890 Atlanta.
Chinese American Jo is mostly invisible except for occasional looks of disdain and derisive comments, and she doesn’t mind: Her priority is making
An optimistic, sophisticated portrayal of one facet of Chinese American—and simply American—history.
Chinese American Jo is mostly invisible except for occasional looks of disdain and derisive comments, and she doesn’t mind: Her priority is making
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sure she and her adoptive father, Chinese immigrant Old Gin, remain safe in their abandoned abolitionists’ hideaway beneath a print shop. But even if she lives on the margins, Jo has opinions of her own which she shares in her newspaper advice column under the byline “Miss Sweetie.” Suddenly all of Atlanta is talking about her ideas, though they don’t know that the witty advice on relationships, millinery, and horse races comes from a Chinese girl. As curiosity about Miss Sweetie mounts, Jo may not be able to stay hidden much longer. And as she learns more about the blurred lines and the hard truths about race in her city and her own past, maybe she doesn’t want to. In her latest work, Lee (The Secret of a Heart Note, 2016, etc.) continues to demonstrate that Chinese people were present—and had a voice—in American history. She deftly weaves historical details with Jo’s personal story of finding a voice and a place for herself in order to create a single, luminous work.An optimistic, sophisticated portrayal of one facet of Chinese American—and simply American—history.
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Awards
Iowa Teen Award (Nominee — 2022)
Green Mountain Book Award (Nominee — 2021)
Grand Canyon Reader Award (Nominee — 2024)
Louisiana Young Readers' Choice Award (Nominee — 2022)
SCBWI Crystal Kite Award (2020)
NCSLMA Battle of the Books (High School — 2021)
Virginia Readers' Choice (Nominee — High School — 2022)
Golden Poppy Book Award (Winner — Young Adult — 2019)
Westchester Fiction Award (Winner — 2020)
Flicker Tale Award (Nominee — Older Readers — 2022)
Evergreen Teen Book Award (Nominee — High School — 2022)
Rhode Island Teen Book Award (Nominee — 2022)
NPR: Books We Love (2019)
Reese's Book Club (Young Adult — 2021-08 — 2021)
Best Fiction for Young Adults (Selection — 2020)
Tayshas High School Reading List (Top Ten — 2020)
Nerdy Book Award (Young Adult Literature — 2019)
Los Angeles Public Library Best of the Year (Teen — 2019)
OYAN Book Rave (2020)
Language
Original language
English
ISBN
1524740977 / 9781524740979