Cilla Lee-Jenkins--Future Author Extraordinaire

January 15, 2017
An aspiring author grapples with change in her family. Cilla Lee-Jenkins, age 8 ' and in second grade, has a set of white grandparents, the Jenkinses, whom she sees on Thursdays when her parents work late, and a set of Chinese-American grandparents, the Lees, whom she sees on Wednesdays when her parents go out to eat. Her mom's expecting a baby Cilla calls The Blob. Cilla plans to be an author, and this debut novel purports to be her journal, in which she describes not only what is happening to her now--dreading the new baby and unhappy that the two sets of grandparents don't get along--but tells several stories from her younger days in preschool and kindergarten. This creates a problem. While Cilla's voice is clever, her stories, attitude, and problems are all those of a far younger child than one who could write such a sophisticated account. The heart of the story--Cilla's disappointment that her sister's birth unites the family in ways hers did not--is glossed over, and while Cilla's unhappiness about the new baby feels unrealistically extreme, so too does the speed with which it disappears. Tan, who grew up in a mixed-race family, does a lovely job of showing how Cilla finds joy in both sides of her heritage. Wulfekotte's soft, black-and-white illustrations appear every few pages. In the end, this book is too difficult for most of the 7-year-old readers who would like Cilla and features too young a protagonist to interest 10-year-olds ready for books of this length. (Fiction. 7-10)

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January 1, 2017

Gr 3-5-Eight-and-a-half-year-old Priscilla Lee-Jenkins (aka Cilla) has big plans. She knows that her destiny is to be a world-famous author when she grows up, and is practicing by sharing her life story (so far) with readers. Tan writes in a fun and spunky voice that brings to mind favorite characters such as Junie B. Jones, Ramona Quimby, and Fancy Nancy but is still all her own. Cilla is biracial, Chinese and white, and has a lot of feelings about where she fits into her family. She sometimes worries about being "too Chinese" for her white grandparents and "too white" for her Chinese grandparents, and she is acutely aware that both sets of grandparents, while all a big part of her life, tend to stay separate from each other. She also experiences microaggressions from some adults who ask her questions like, "Where are you from?" and "What are you?," particularly while she is with the white side of her family. No one in Cilla's family really understands what it is like to be her, and while that bothers her, she is not looking forward to sharing her family-or anything else-with the new baby who is on the way. VERDICT Highly recommended for school and public libraries. Readers will identify with Cilla and wish they were friends with her in real life.-Heather Webb, Worthington Libraries, OH

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from February 1, 2017
Grades 3-5 *Starred Review* Eight-year-old Cilla Lee-Jenkins is destined for literary greatness. She is up against the clock to get her best-selling memoir written before the arrival of her new baby sisteraka The Blobcauses everyone in her family to forget about her. A few pages spent with this exuberant, guileless narrator is evidence that no one will be forgetting Cilla anytime soon. She loves stories, and the highs and lows of her own experiences make for an animated memoir. Prolonged baldness, a taste for snails, and the slings and arrows of friendship are all part of her joyful narrative. When Cilla talks about her burgeoning realization that she is a biracial child in a society that is trying to label her, and that there is distance within her own family between her Chinese grandparents and her Caucasian grandparents, her introspection on the matter, and how it concerns her without completely derailing her, will hearten readers. Occasional black-and-white illustrations enhance the text, and Cilla's empathy, candor, and skill at turning a phrase indicate that her claim to be a future author extraordinaire is completely justified. As she says, My book is over, but my writing isn't. Anyone who spends time with Cilla Lee-Jenkins will look forward to reading her in the future.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)