Horn Book (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Monica "Mo" Lin, a sixth-grade Chinese American girl, has moved with her mother and half-sister to the (fictional) small town of New Warren, Massachusetts, to live with her "aging Chinese hippie" great-uncle, Ray. Mo struggles with grief over her stepfather's abandonment and with anxiety as she tries to take care of her family with little help from her detached mother. Then a circus elephant begins to appear in her dreams. Confronted with a supernatural mystery surrounding the elephant's death in a century-old town fire, Mo joins with classmate Nathaniel in a plot to solve the mystery and bring the elephant peace. She finds in Nathaniel an impulsive risk-taker who earns and then breaks her trust before their final confrontation with a malevolent ghost. Mo's quintessentially middle-grade voice pivots from no-nonsense (when she's in family-caretaking mode) to frightened (in the face of ghost-hunting) to sad (when confronting the state of her family); as one of the few non-white people in town, she also deals with frequent microaggressions. Tan's narrative employs rich sensory details that immediately hook readers and don't let go until the very last sentence. It turns out, as Mo and Nathaniel discover, that friendship, in all its messy glory, can be one of the ­biggest mysteries of all. J. Elizabeth Mills

Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews (Tue Feb 28 00:00:00 CST 2023)

A 12-year-old Chinese American girl learns to cope with grief, anxiety, and uncertainty in the wake of difficult life changes.After Mo Lin's stepfather leaves, her family moves in with her Uncle Ray in a new town. Having a depressed, overwhelmed, and emotionally absent mother means it's up to Mo to take care of 5-year-old half sister CeCe and herself, even though she is grieving. What's more, the kids at her new middle school are racist and hostile. Her sense of safety in tatters, Mo sees danger everywhere: Even something as mundane as a piece of toast might trigger a house fire. Most unsettling, Maudie the elephant, who died in a local circus fire years ago, keeps haunting her dreams. Mo finds allies in Uncle Ray, a gentle, perceptive man who shows her how music can provide solace; Nathaniel, a ghost-obsessed Jewish classmate; and Lavender, a Black librarian who opens her eyes to diverse, often overlooked stories from history. As Mo tries to determine what Maudie needs from her, she gains insights into the ghosts haunting her own family that must be laid to rest. Triggering past events in Mo's life are revealed slowly, echoing her evolving ability to process them. The characterization is particularly strong; Mo displays a full range of emotions, from grief to anger, avoidance to acceptance. Her mother and Uncle Ray are fully fleshed, complex characters as well.A realistic and deeply moving portrayal of a family's journey through a challenging life transition. (Fiction. 8-12)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

An apprehensive girl ventures into unknown territory in new environs—and within herself—to uncover the truth behind a local legend in this thrilling otherworldly novel from Tan (the Cilla Lee-Jenkins series). After her stepdad leaves, Chinese American 12-year-old Mo Lin, her five-year-old half sister CeCe, and their mother move to a new town to live with Uncle Ray. Helping with her younger sister, watching her mom navigate depression, and facing racism in the largely white Massachusetts town makes the transition a difficult one for Mo, as does her heightened fear of fire following a toast incident at the family’s prior home. Strange dreams and bouts of sleepwalking add to her worries, especially when they turn out to involve the ghost of a circus elephant named Maudie, who perished in a local fire and whose spirit lives on via a ghostly white dog. When unsettling occurrences begin happening around town, Mo teams up with new friend Nathaniel, a ghost enthusiast who is white and Jewish, to investigate, finding that it takes living a little dangerously to uncover truths about their town’s erased history. Mo’s sincere first-person narrative portrays the way that finding emotional safety—via attending therapy, and bonding with Uncle Ray over music—gives way to a feeling of peace. Ages 8–12. Agent: Daniel Lazar, Writers House. (Apr.)

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

A 12-year-old Chinese American girl learns to cope with grief, anxiety, and uncertainty in the wake of difficult life changes.After Mo Lin's stepfather leaves, her family moves in with her Uncle Ray in a new town. Having a depressed, overwhelmed, and emotionally absent mother means it's up to Mo to take care of 5-year-old half sister CeCe and herself, even though she is grieving. What's more, the kids at her new middle school are racist and hostile. Her sense of safety in tatters, Mo sees danger everywhere: Even something as mundane as a piece of toast might trigger a house fire. Most unsettling, Maudie the elephant, who died in a local circus fire years ago, keeps haunting her dreams. Mo finds allies in Uncle Ray, a gentle, perceptive man who shows her how music can provide solace; Nathaniel, a ghost-obsessed Jewish classmate; and Lavender, a Black librarian who opens her eyes to diverse, often overlooked stories from history. As Mo tries to determine what Maudie needs from her, she gains insights into the ghosts haunting her own family that must be laid to rest. Triggering past events in Mo's life are revealed slowly, echoing her evolving ability to process them. The characterization is particularly strong; Mo displays a full range of emotions, from grief to anger, avoidance to acceptance. Her mother and Uncle Ray are fully fleshed, complex characters as well.A realistic and deeply moving portrayal of a family's journey through a challenging life transition. (Fiction. 8-12)