The Ping-Pong Queen of Chinatown
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected Jul 16, 2024
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- $10.99
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- Pre-Order
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Perfect for fans of Ben Philippe and Mary H. K. Choi, this charming, insightful YA novel follows two high school students who form a complicated, ground-shifting bond while filming a movie.
High school junior Felix Ma wants to prove to his parents that he’s not a quitter. After crashing out of piano lessons and competitive ping-pong, Felix starts a film club at his school in a last-ditch attempt to find a star extracurricular for his college applications.
Then he meets Cassie Chow, a bubbly high school senior who shares Felix’s anxieties about the future and complicated relationship with parental expectations. Felix feels drawn to Cassie for reasons he can’t quite articulate, so as an excuse to see her more, he invites Cassie to star in his short film.
The project starts out as a lighthearted mockumentary. But at the urging of Felix’s college admissions coach, who wants to turn the film into essay material, it soon morphs into a serious drama about the emotional scars that parents leave on their kids. As Felix and Cassie uncover their most painful memories, Cassie starts to balk at opening her wounds for the camera.
With his parents and college admissions coach hot on his heels, Felix discovers painful truths about himself and his past—and must decide whether pleasing his parents is worth losing his closest friend.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Chinese American Felix Ma struggles to find his footing after moving from Flushing to suburban Long Island in this spirited novel by Yang (I'm Not Here to Make Friends). After quitting piano and ping-pong, Felix searches for an essay topic that will impress his college admissions coach while also proving his parents "didn't raise no quitter." Inspired by his love of movies, Felix starts a classic film club and finds a fellow cinephile in Gaspard Pierre-Duluc, who reads as Black. They become fast friends and decide to film The Ping-Pong Queen of Chinatown, a movie inspired by high school senior Cassie Chow, who lives in Chinatown and with whom Felix has "a history of chance encounters"—including at the Rubenstein Center piano competition and the Citywide Table Tennis Championship. What starts as a ploy to stand out and befriend Cassie turns into a more complicated venture that depicts the sometimes-fraught relationship between the teens and their immigrant parents. Candid prose deftly articulates Felix's inherent privilege as well as the ways in which Felix and Cassie's class differences impact their friendship, home lives, and futures. Ages 13–up.