The Emperor's Riddle

March 1, 2017
When Aunt Lin goes missing in Fuzhou, 11-year-old Mia might be the only one who can find her--and maybe solve a centuries-old mystery along the way.Although she hasn't been to China since she was a very little girl, Mia isn't looking forward to summer there, away from her friends. But Aunt Lin's excitement about sharing "where their family had come from" is contagious, and Mia loves hearing her old histories of an exiled Ming emperor and his long-lost treasure. After Aunt Lin disappears, Mia realizes, with the help of a family heirloom conveniently-turned-treasure map, that solving the emperor's riddle is the key to rescuing her kidnapped aunt. Readers will appreciate the portrayal of a second-generation immigrant's gradual sense of belonging in a distant, inherited home. They may also recall a more humorous and plausible treatment of that experience in Thanhha Lai's Listen, Slowly (2015)--starring, coincidentally, another Mia. Zhang's middle-grade debut then takes a turn into a crowded field: puzzle-solving, kid-detective stories. Here, it's a fresh take; it's a treat to get a side of ancient Chinese lore and contemporary geography with the standard mystery fare. Readers may wish for historical backmatter and a more-detailed map to flesh out both lore and land, however. Unfortunately, occasionally ponderous writing ("Mia gave Jake a speaking look") and an abundant-to-the-point-of-distraction use of italics (including, inconsistently, Chinese words) detract from a worthy story. An uneven but enjoyable-enough adventure. (Mystery. 8-12)

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emmdro1718 - Do you like riddles? In Kat Zhang’s ‘The Emperors Riddle’ Mia, the protagonist (main character) loves riddles and adventure. Mia’s mother even calls her “A grand adventure”. When Mia visits Modern China, her mother's home-country, on a summer trip, her Aunt Lin pulls out a an old picture that belonged to Mia’s grandmother, on the back is an incomplete map to an ancient treasure that hasn’t been found ever. When Aunt Lin tells her old friend Ying she might have found the map to the treasure, Ying kidnaps Lin. Aunt lin, and Ying had be sent to the Fuzhou countryside when they were teenagers to be laborers and they searched for the treasure there. Aunt Lin wanted to put the treasure in a museum but Ying wanted to sell it to make money. They never find the treasure and eventually go back to China. Years later, Ying's wife is extremely sick. After she finds out Lin has been kidnapped, Mia, and her brother go to find, and rescue Lin. They find the old map, and try to solve they riddles that have been left behind to finish the map. When they do find Lin, they have Ying to deal with. I would recommend this book to people who like adventure books. I really liked this book because it had a sibling team working together to find their aunt, and the adventure they go on is incredible. They go all around China and a lot of chinese temples and monuments are incorporated into the story. This book is basically one giant adventure.