Chinese Cinderella
The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter
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3.8 • 4 Ratings
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
An unforgettable bestselling memoir of resilience, identity, and hope, this is the true story of one girl's determination to rise above rejection in 1940s China and find her own voice.
From the bestselling author of Falling Leaves comes the powerful true story that has inspired generations of readers.
Growing up in an affluent family in 1940s China, Adeline is treated as an outsider from the moment she is born. Blamed for her mother's death in childbirth and neglected by her father, Adeline longs for the love and acceptance that never seem to come. While her stepmother lavishes affection on her younger siblings, Adeline finds comfort in books, excels in school, and quietly dreams of a different future.
Adeline recounts her journey from loneliness and heartbreak to resilience and self-discovery. Like the classic fairy tale that inspired its title, Chinese Cinderella is a deeply moving memoir about overcoming adversity and believing in your own worth.
Perfect for readers who love inspiring true stories, the bookincludes an author's note, a historical note, a photo insert, and the original Chinese text of Chinese Cinderella.
A PW BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
AN ALA-YALSA BEST BOOK FOR YOUNG ADULTS
“One of the most inspiring books I have ever read.” –The Guardian
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Mah revisits the territory she covered in her adult bestseller, Falling Leaves, for this painful and poignant memoir aimed at younger readers. Blamed for the loss of her mother, who died shortly after giving birth to her, Mah is an outcast in her own family. When her father remarries and moves the family to Shanghai to evade the Japanese during WWII, Mah and her siblings are relegated to second-class status by their stepmother. They are given attic rooms in their big Shanghai home, they have nothing to wear but school uniforms, and they subsist on a bare-bones diet while their stepmother's children dine sumptuously. Mah finds escape from this emotionally barren landscape at school, but the academic awards she wins only enrage her jealous siblings and stepmother, and she is eventually torn from her aunt--her one champion--and shipped off to boarding school. That Mah eventually soars above her circumstances is proof of her strength of character. The author recreates moments of cruelty and victory so convincingly that readers will feel almost as if they're in the room with her. She never veers from a child's sensibility; the child in these pages rarely judges the actions of those around her, she's simply bent on surviving. Mah easily weaves details of her family's life alongside the traditions of China (e.g., her grandmother's bound feet) and the changes throughout the war years and subsequent Communist takeover. This memoir is hard to put down. Ages 12-up.
