Sunlight Playing over a Mountain
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A lyrical, mythology-tinged debut novel about a Chinese-Filipino teenager whose world of daydreams is destroyed by a family secret—perfect for fans of Emily X.R. Pan and Ann Liang.
Jasmine Cheng has grown up on stories spun by her beautiful, free-spirited mother. Together, they’re the Phoenix and Dragon. Jasmine’s father is the god Pangu, creator of the heavens and earth. Her mother may have boyfriends, but Jasmine chases them away. For her mother, love brings chaos, sleepless nights, and frightening episodes, and it’s Jasmine’s job to keep their home life stable.
When the sudden arrival of Cal, her mother’s old flame, fractures their delicate world, events unfold that will send Jasmine on a cross-country journey to the West Coast—and into her past. Jasmine becomes determined to find the truth within her mother’s stories, even while her mother’s refusal to be honest drives a deeper wedge between them. Will the crack in their fantasy destroy her, or finally let the light in?
Selina Li Bi’s magical debut perfectly portrays the pain of growing up in a less-than-magical world and introduces a remarkable new voice in young adult fiction.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Raised on fantastical stories spun by her free-spirited single mother, an artistic 15-year-old must face a harsh reality when a family secret is discovered in Li Bi's melancholy novel. Chinese Filipina Jasmine Cheng, who has only known a life in small Midwestern Briarplace with her ill mother, is responsible for keeping their precarious lifestyle intact. According to her mother, Jasmine's father is Pangu, the world's creator. Her mother's stories bring her solace as she contends with her mother's refusal to divulge anything more about her father and the frequent comings and goings of ill-intentioned boyfriends who bring nothing but chaos and fear into their lives. Then Child Protective Services takes an interest in their household and starts asking questions, the answers to which could upend Jasmine's whole life. The sudden arrival of her mother's old flame sets a series of emotionally tumultuous events into motion, sending the mother-daughter duo across the country to face the past. Throughout, Jasmine contends with racism, the prospect of foster care, first love, and complicated feelings surrounding her mother's condition, circumstances which Li Bi depicts in dreamlike, Chinese mythology–tinged prose. Ages 14–up.
