This was on the public library's recommended to read list, so I checked it out for my voracious 13 year old. She snarfed it in one sitting and I read it immediately after her.

The story shows the complications of friendships as we grow up, change, and meet new people. It handles issues of jealousy, guilt, and apology. Kids have serious discussions with each other and with the grownups around them.

I enjoyed reading a story with an Asian American protagonist and her family doing a lot of the family things I see in my Chinese American friends' families (Chinese classes, music class, emphasis on the importance of school, etc). It made me happy that the story's critical conflict had nothing to do with the stereotypical issues that tend to be presented in books (and news coverage) such as the kids assimilating while the parents want them to resist, or the parents being borderline evil about grades and the kids hating the pressure (and the parents).

It made me happy that it fit into the story to show how the Asian American community comes together to help each other out (doing something because it's the right thing, not because they necessarily know the person involved). I loved the design of the celestial beings, who looked a lot like the flying apsaras from Dunhuang.

I would have liked the story to be a bit longer.

I think this would appeal to elementary and middle school kids who like graphic novels with a realistic setting (no magic or sci-fi), and kids who are working through a transition (new school, new home, trying to find new friends.