He knows I normally scoff at my ma’s fortune-telling superstitions. I’ve never told him that I don’t like fours, after a lifelong string of mishaps involving that digit.

I wince at the mention of “four.” Tom glances at me standing motionless. Tom has the kind of golden face that stays handsome even when he’s worried or annoyed. “No.” His smooth “good fortune” forehead wrinkles. “It’s hardly more than a baby’s breath! You’re not having second thoughts, are you?” At school, they prohibit us from speaking our native Cantonese. We use English with each other out of habit. “Wind’s blowier than I thought,” he mutters, looking askance at the deserted hills of the Presidio Military Reservation. He hadn’t wanted the haircut, but I had insisted after he agreed to swipe me a costly chuen pooi bulb from his father’s next shipment. The bald spot on his head is growing back, to my relief. Outside the basket, Tom holds out his tongue to test the wind. Both the balloon and I are itching to take off. I run my hands over the inner wall of the bamboo basket, which strains at the stakes pinning it to the ground. After scores of solo flights, Tom finally deemed it safe enough to bring me aboard. Tom’s hot-air balloon, the Floating Island, hovers above us, a cloud of tofu-colored silk trapped in netting.

In my fifteen years, I have stuck my arm in a vat of slithering eels, climbed all the major hills of San Francisco, and tiptoed over the graves of a hundred souls. 'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title. But what can one teenage girl do to heal so many suffering in her broken city? Though fires might rage, and the city may be in shambles, Mercy can’t sit by while they wait for the army to bring help-she still has the “bossy” cheeks that mark her as someone who gets things done. Now she’s forced to wait with her classmates for their families in a temporary park encampment. On April 18, a historic earthquake rocks San Francisco, destroying Mercy’s home and school. Not to be undone by a bunch of spoiled heiresses, Mercy stands strong-until disaster strikes. Clare’s is off-limits to all but the wealthiest white girls, Mercy gains admittance through a mix of cunning and a little bribery, only to discover that getting in was the easiest part. Clare’s School for Girls is her best hope. Winner of the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literatureįifteen-year-old Mercy Wong is determined to break from the poverty of Chinatown, San Francisco in 1906, and an education at St. Winner of the PEN Center USA Literary Award for Young Adult From the author of the critically acclaimed Under a Painted Sky, an unforgettable story of determination set against a backdrop of devastating tragedy.

Outrun the Moon by Stacey Lee