Moon Princess

Gr 3–5—Set in China during the Mid-Autumn Festival, or Moon Festival, Laban's work follows blonde-haired, blue-eyed Sienna and her father, who move from London to Shanghai, where Sienna spends her days with Ling, a cruel housekeeper and teacher. A few months earlier, near the Fragrant Mountain Temple, two people disappeared: Sienna's mother, Kate Farringdon, an expert on ancient Chinese art, and Gege, a boy who sold drinks near the temple. Kate had been researching a statue of Guanyin, the Buddhist goddess of mercy. When Sienna sees Ling swapping out a valuable necklace of Kate's, Sienna flees and finds Gege's brother, Feng, who works at the cookshop across the street. Feng tells Sienna about Gege's plan to steal a discovery of her mother's, and the pair set out for the Fragrant Mountain Temple in hopes of tracking down Kate and Gege. Along the way they are helped by an elderly man and invisible animal friends. Although this tale is fast-paced, it falls short in terms of literary depth and cultural perspective; there are also some unfortunate instances of misogyny. The invisible friends correspond with animals from the Chinese Zodiac; however, one of them has a talent for helping Sienna speak "like a real Chinese girl." Ling is one of the few Chinese women in the story, yet she's extremely villainous. Family and its connections with the Moon Festival are woven into the narrative, and while the novel explains Buddhism in relation to Guanyin, the religion doesn't otherwise play a role in the plot. Throughout, there is more telling than showing and the writing feels unrefined.