A family feud before the start of seventh grade propels Meilan from Boston\x27s Chinatown to rural Ohio, where she must tap into her inner strength and sense of justice to make a new place for herself in this resonant debut.<\/b> Meilan Hua\x27s world is made up of a few key ingredients: her family\x27s beloved matriarch, Nai Nai; the bakery her parents, aunts, and uncles own and run in Boston\x27s Chinatown; and her favorite Chinese fairy tales. After Nai Nai passes, the family has a falling\-out that sends Meilan, her parents, and her grieving grandfather on the road in search of a new home. They take a winding path across the country before landing in Redbud, Ohio. Everything in Redbud is the opposite of Chinatown, and Meilan\x27s not quite sure who she is\-\-being renamed at school only makes it worse. She decides she is many Meilans, each inspired by a different Chinese character with the same pronunciation as her name. Sometimes she is Mist, cooling and invisible; other times, she\x27s Basket, carrying her parents\x27 hopes and dreams and her guilt of not living up to them; and occasionally she is bright Blue, the way she feels around her new friend Logan. Meilan keeps her facets separate until an injustice at school shows her the power of bringing her many selves together. The Many Meanings of Meilan<\/i>, written in stunning prose by Andrea Wang, is an exploration of all the things it\x27s possible to grieve, the injustices large and small that make us rage, and the peace that\x27s unlocked when we learn to find home within ourselves.
ISBN: 9780593111307
Title: The Many Meanings of Meilan
Author: Wang, Andrea
Publisher: Kokila
Binding: Paperback
Category: Tweens Fiction
Subject: People & Places