I Want Candy

April 1, 2008
Adult/High School-Candace Ong, 14, finds herself interested but lacking in the sexual allure that her mean, not-so-best friend Ruby Ping flaunts, and she bemoans her lot in life as the egg roll and crab Rangoon fryer at her parents small San Francisco restaurant. But Candace has dreams and abilities of her own. Its 1983, and her fantasy life is rich with both Adam Ant and the doings of the young men just a generation ahead of her who seem to be living lives of independence and decadence. When shes not working or following Ruby to Pier 39, Candy Othe persona this potentially hot little schoolgirl is cultivatingtries some trysting on her own, with the fellow at the photocopy shop and a friend of a buddy at the record store. But ultimately, shes just a kid and a smart one at that, so she can see the dangers that all of the Afterschool Specials shes ingested through junior high have warned about. She manages to duck out at the last critical moment, unlike Ruby, whose brazenness leads to an explosion in the restaurant. Over the next few months, Candace suffers from guilt and the illusion that Ruby is still able to taunt her. Keltners characters are authentic, raw, and fully realized from Candaces immature, but increasingly insightful, perspective. This is adult urban fiction with a real adolescent protagonist living in a period and place where adolescence seems to be an interminable social condition."Francisca Goldsmith, Halifax Public Libraries, Nova Scotia"

Copyright 2008 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2008
More than anything, 14-year-old Candace Ong wants not to be stuck as a waitress in a restaurant like Eggroll Wonderland; thats the one in San Franciscos Chinatown where her joyless parents work, night and day, and embarrass their daughter with their fractured English. She is also getting extremely tired of playing the role of smartbut pudgysidekick to her best friend, the beautiful and very sexy Ruby Ping. But playing a new part isnt always easy, and Candace makes some often funny, sometimes sad mistakes, most of them of a sexual, vaguely Lolitaesque nature. As she did in her first two novels, The Dim Sum of All Things (2004) and Buddha Baby (2005), Keltner explores the rigors of finding ones identity as a member of two cultures. Her introduction of magical realism into the latter part of her book is a bit disconcerting to the reader but helpful to Candace in discovering important aspects of her Chinese heritage.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)