Synopses & Reviews
The worst thing about having it all is having to deal with it all-the good, the bad, and the just plain weird. Like seeing more of my dad when he's on the cover of Business Week
than I do in person. Like the surgeon whose schedule was too jammed with professional ballplayers to deal with my busted up knee...until he heard who my parents were and miraculously his calendar was wide open. Like the pseudo boyfriend who was more in love with my last name than with me.Everybody thinks Syrah is the golden girl. After all, her father is Ethan Cheng, billionaire, and she has everything any kid could possibly desire, right down to a waterfront mansion, jet plane, and custom-designed snowboards. But most of what glitters in her life is fool's gold. Her half-siblings hate her, her best friend Adrian's girlfriend is ruining their friendship, and her own so-called boyfriend is after her for her father's name. When her broken heart results in a snowboarding accident that exiles her from the mountains--the one place where she feels free and accepted for who she is, not what she has--Syrah must rehab both her busted-up knee, and her broken heart, and learn that she's worth her weight in real gold.
Review
"In the month after 16-year-old Maggie Chens father, a respected journalist, was killed in a hit-and-run accident, a basement flood destroys his notebooks...Ingold relies on some contrivance to link her plot strands, but the openended conclusion feels realistic and highlights Maggies elemental questions about how family history influences personal identity and how life moves forward after impossible loss." —
Booklist "Ingold (Hitch) weaves together two intersecting stories in this novel about identity and family...Though the historical chapters start slower, as Fai-yi's story builds, so does the tension and drama, especially his emotionally fraught relationship with his sister and star-crossed love...Ingold offers insight into the sacrifices and secrets involved in emigration from China during this period and their ripple effects." —Publishers Weekly
"This novel is a must read for those who love mysteries and family history." —VOYA
Synopsis
The worst thing about having it all, is having to deal with it all - the good, the bad, and the just plain weird. Everybody thinks Syrah is the golden girl. After all, her father is Ethan Cheng, billionaire, and she has everything any kid could possibly desire, right down to a waterfront mansion, jet plane, and custom-designed snowboards. But as Syrah reveals in her manga journal, most of what glitters in her life is fool's gold. Her half-sibs hate her, her best friend's girlfriend is threatening their friendship, and a snowboarding accident exiles her from the mountains - the one place where she feels free and accepted for who she is, not what she has. After Syrah rehabs her busted-up knee and broken heart, makes a new friend, uncovers a family secret, and discovers a way to help a young girl with leukemia, she is finally able to realize her real worth.
Synopsis
Everybody thinks Syrah is the golden girl. After all, her father is a billionaire, and she has everything any kid could possibly desire. However, as Syrah reveals in her manga journal, most of what glitters in her life is fool's gold.
Synopsis
After her father's mysterious death, up-and-coming journalist Maggie Chen must sift through her family's secretive past. What she finds may have been easier left uncovered, as she confronts her ethnicity and identity in this moving novel.
Synopsis
Maggie Chen's journalist father has fired her imagination with the thrill of the newsroom, and when her father is killed, she is determined to keep his dreams alive by interning at the newspaper.
While assisting on her first story, Maggie learns that her father is suspected of illegal activity, and knows she must clear his name. Drawn to Seattles Chinatown, she discovers things that are far from what she expected: secrets, lies, and a connection to the Chinese Exclusion Era. Using all of her newspaper instincts and resources, Maggie is forced to confront her ethnicity—and a family she never knew.
This edition includes a guide for book group discussions and classroom use.
About the Author
Justina Chen grew up near Buffalo, NY and San Francisco. After attending Stanford University she spent time in New York and Sydney, Australia before settling near Seattle, Washington, where she currently lives with her two children. This is Justina's second YA novel. Her first, Nothing But the Truth (and a few white lies), was a Book Sense pick, and her third novel, North of Beautiful, garnered critical acclaim with three starred reviews.