Crash Landing by Li Charmaine Anne

When I read that this book had won the GG Award, I did a fist pump at my desk and said, “Yay!” (Alone in one’s office, this reaction roughly equals, jumping around high-fiving everyone.)

This is a GREAT book. Lots of non-didactic content about the nuanced life experiences of individuals in the Chinese Canadian community. Through the protagonist, her girlfriend, sister, parents and other fully developed secondary characters, the author fleshes out how different first generation immigrants’ lives are from their children, but equally how ideas and customs vary – or evolve differently - from family to family. Chinese Canadians are not 100% homogenous, anymore than Canadians in general are. This book provides wonderful windows into the lives of these characters. For some, it may provide fantastic mirrors for the first time.

One mirror – for me – was to the life of a Canadian teenager! Remember being a teenager? Remember poor time management – “I’m late? Really?! Huhn…” Remember failing to plan for every possibility and thinking – without an iota of sarcasm, “What could go wrong?” Remember learning about your friends and friendships as the inevitable calamity struck? Remember the time you realized that getting caught by your parents wasn’t the worst possible outcome for you?   

On a (perhaps) less momentous note, I’ve always thought skateboarding was kind of dumb. Like with the book Exit Pursued by a Bear regarding cheerleading, if an author can make me care about something I previously thought was goofy, they are accomplished at their craft. Crash Landing gave me new respect for the sport of skateboarding.

There is so much to love about this book, oh and it’s a debut. Incredible! I can’t wait to read more books by Li Charmaine Anne.

Young Adult Fiction pr7332912