Name: Ruby Lost and Found
ISBN: 9780063008939

Christina Li

Ruby Lost and Found

Minh Ngo

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher Harper Collins, and the author Christina Li for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. I have nothing but good praise for Li's work. Li writes a well-crafted middle-grade/YA story. This book is perfect for the demographic and for Chinese/Asian Americans and represents San Francisco's Chinatown as an ethnography. Li places details of the city, such as the characters using public transportation through busses and the geographic areas of SF Chinatown. Li creates a well-rounded narrative of grief, the impact of losing a loved one, and how grief can cause misbehavior, such as Devi's character in Never Have I Ever (on Netflix by Mindy Kaling). This is also one of the few middle-grade/YA stories, including a 3rd/4th (depending on how you define it) Chinese or Asian American. I appreciate Ruby grew as a person and found her responses to her circumstances to be true and relatable. I also appreciate Li for keeping Ruby and Liam's relationship strictly platonic as friends matter too. Often friendship matters more than romance does. The lack of closure or resolve between Ruby's old friends is an element I enjoyed as well.

Ruby Lost and Found

Reviews

Highlights