The Land of Forgotten Girls

March 14, 2016
Kelly (Blackbird Fly) balances the bleak and the beautiful in a novel about the multilayered bond between sisters. Twelve-year-old narrator Sol and her six-year-old sister, Ming, live in a depressing, rat-infested apartment building with their cruel stepmother, Vea, who taps cigarette ashes into the carpet and locks them in the closet when they misbehave. Soon after the girls' mother and younger sister Amelia died, their father married Vea and moved all of them from the Philippines to Louisiana, only to abandon them and return home. In a supernatural thread woven into the story, Sol converses with the ghost of Amelia, who offers advice and helps Sol parse what is true and what is real. Fairy-tale fantasies and extensions of the tales their mother once told Sol contrast with her day-to-day life with her best friend Manny and a well-developed cast that includes an artistically inclined junkyard owner and a kind neighbor. While the story is resolved a bit tidily, Kelly's strong heroine offers hope in the face of loss. Ages 8â12. Agent: Sara Crowe, Harvey Klinger.

Starred review from December 1, 2015

Gr 3-6-Soledad and Ming, two sisters from the Philippines, live in Louisiana with their evil stepmother, Vea. All Sol and Ming have is each other and their stories. Both girls inherited a lively imagination from their mother, Mei-Mei. When she was alive, Mei-Mei wove enthralling tales about her magical sister, Jove, who traveled around the world. The girls cling to tales of Auntie Jove as a hope of escape while living in a dreary apartment with miserable Vea. Sol worries for her younger sister as Ming begins to believe Auntie Jove is a reality, blurring the lines between fact and fiction. Can Sol save her sister from the depression caused by her own stories, or have they done irreparable damage? Is there a way for Sol, Ming, and Vea to understand one another and be happy in their own reality? Readers will become engrossed in the enchanting plot propelled by delightful narration. This book will appeal to a broad array of readers, as it has a little bit of everything-fantasy, realism, sisterhood, friendship, suspense, and humor. VERDICT A charming and affecting novel about sisterhood, the magic of imagination, and perseverance.-Tiffany Davis, Mount Saint Mary College, Newburgh, NY

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2016

Gr 3-6-After their mother dies, Soledad and Ming's father brings his daughters and his new wife from the Philippines to the United States-and soon abandons them. Their stepmother, Vea, is angry and abusive, and Soledad spins stories for her younger sister to help them both survive. Themes of resilience, sisterhood, and the power of the imagination are interwoven in this tender, ultimately hopeful tale.

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2015
Two Filipino sisters living with their mean stepmother discover hope in unexpected places. Kelly (Blackbird Fly, 2015) returns to southern Louisiana in her second book. Twelve-year-old Sol has no family left except for her youngest sister, Ming. Soon after they immigrated to a small Louisiana town, their father returned to the Philippines, abandoning the sisters with their unhappy stepmother, Vea. Sol imagines herself and Ming as princesses fighting an evil dragon in order to endure their stepmother's verbal and physical abuse, their subsidized apartment building becoming a fairy-tale tower. She and her best friend, Manny, befriend a white girl from the other side of town, and Sol begins to rely less on her stories while Ming desperately holds on. When Ming announces that an aunt will save the sisters from their evil stepmother, Sol can't bear to tell Ming that the aunt doesn't exist. Always the strong older sister, she desperately searches for a solution before her heated relationship with Vea explodes. Kelly deftly captures the tumultuous emotions of a preteen who is forced to grow up faster than other girls her age. The book focuses mostly on Sol's inner struggles, however, and it lacks the momentum to turn its quiet characters into a full-blown tale that effectively handles the class and race issues that it touches upon. A promising story that doesn't quite find its footing. (Fiction. 10-14)

COPYRIGHT(2015) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from January 1, 2016
Grades 4-7 *Starred Review* Soledad's life in a small Louisiana town has its bleak aspects. The 12-year-old lives in low-income housing with rats in the walls, but worse than that is the evil stepmother who caresas little as possiblefor Sol and her younger sister, Ming. The girls came from the Philippines with their father and Vea, who only married him to get to America. Their father, however, returned to the Philippines, yet Vea keeps the girls for the assistance money. Despite all that is wrong in Sol's world, she has a soaring imagination: a punishment closet can transform into a castle, and her third sister, who drowned back in the Philippines, can appear like an angel. There is purpose in Sol's life, too: taking care of Ming and having fun with her friend Manny though his desire to kiss her seems silly. Kelly's sophomore novel is both hopeful and heartfelt, but strong emotions are only part of the successful equation here. Told in Sol's true voice, the direct dialogue brings the diverse characters to vivid life. For example, an elderly Chinese neighbor, who speaks almost no English, is so beautifully cast that dialogue isn't even necessary. One caveat: the lighthearted cover depicting Sol and Ming having backyard fun may suggest to readers that this is a breezy read, when in truth, it is so much more.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)