Theo Tan and the Fox Spirit
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
After inheriting a grieving fox spirit, a Chinese American boy must learn to embrace his heritage to solve the mystery of his brother's death in Jesse Q Sutanto's magical, action-packed middle grade fantasy, Theo Tan and the Fox Spirit.
Theo Tan doesn't want a spirit companion. He just wants to be a normal American kid, playing video games, going to conventions, and using cirth pendants to cast his spells like everyone else. But, when his older brother dies, Theo ends up inheriting Jamie's fox spirit, Kai.
Kai isn't happy about this either. Theo is nothing like Jamie, and the two of them have never gotten along. But, when they realize the mysterious journal Jamie left Theo is filled with clues and secret codes, it's clear that something strange was going on with Jamie's internship at Reapling Corp.
But the only way onto the campus is the highly competitive "Know Your Roots" summer camp program, a celebration of Chinese and Indian cultures designed to help connect students with their heritage. Theo and Kai will have to put aside their differences long enough to honor Jamie's last wishes, or the mystery he died for will remain unsolved forever...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Twelve-year-old Theo Tan and his two-tailed shape-shifting fox spirit companion Kai must work together to solve the mystery of his brother's death in Sutanto's (The New Girl) Chinese-mythology-rich middle grade debut. In a futuristic San Francisco in which expensive cirth magic, which is bought and stockpiled in pendants, dominates daily life, Theo "hate that I'm a Chinese American kid who lives in Chinatown." He isn't like his hardworking, proudly Chinese American older brother Jamie, who's a cultural outreach intern at Reapling Corp., the U.S.'s largest cirth supplier. After Jamie dies in a car accident, Theo inherits his brother's acerbic spirit companion, Kai, with whom Theo's never gotten along. When they uncover Jamie's coded notebook, which implicates Reapling in his death, the pair reluctantly work together to solve the mystery by infiltrating the company via its prestigious cultural outreach summer program. In Theo and Kai's alternating perspectives, Sutanto weaves the duo's shared grief and path to healing with Theo's journey toward embracing his Chinese heritage in this rewarding fantasy adventure. Ages 8 12. Agent: Katelyn Detweiler, Jill Grinberg Literary Management.
