Moon Princess - Softcover

Barbara Laban

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1908435933 ISBN 13: 9781908435934

Publisher: Chicken House Ltd, 2016

Synopsis

Sienna is unhappy. Her mum has disappeared and Sienna feels alone in Shanghai. Rufus - an invisible dog - is her only friend. When their mean housekeeper starts acting suspiciously, she decides to investigate. She follows a trail of clues that leads her to a mysterious moon-lit temple. Is her mother's disappearance linked to a priceless statue of the moon princess? And can Sienna discover the dangerous truth?

About this title

About the Author

Barbara Laban went to university in Munich, London and Taipei and graduated in Far Eastern Studies. She left her home country Germany fifteen years ago and worked as a study coordinator and acupuncturist in a centre for Traditional Chinese Medicine in Amsterdam. She loves learning new languages and ever since she wrote her first Chinese character makes every effort to speak the language, but still has room to improve.
When her two daughters were born, she started to translate texts about Traditional Chinese Medicine and soon had the idea to write a childrens’ novel set in China. In 2011 she won the German version of the Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition with her first book Moon Princess. She has not stopped writing since and so far published two more children's books in Germany.
She lives with her husband, daughters and two guinea pigs in London.

From School Library Journal

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. VERDICT While the book focuses on the Moon Festival and has fantastical elements, those seeking stories that emphasize the spiritualism of Buddhism and more developed depictions of Chinese culture should try Carolyn Marsden and Thay Niem's The Buddha's Diamonds and Grace Lin's titles. An additional purchase only.—Liz Anderson, DC Public Library

Edition details

• Publisher: Chicken House Ltd
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1908435933
• ISBN 13: 9781908435934
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192