Just a quick note to say that it’s now officially LAUNCH WEEK (woohoo!) for my friend and agency-mate Natalie Dias Lorenzi‘s lovely middle-grade book, Flying the Dragon, over at the EMU’s Debuts blog. Today I have coauthored a post with another writer named Tara, in which we interview editor Emily Mitchell and agent Erin Murphy and give away a signed copy of the book. Come check it out! (And come back every day this week–we’ll have new posts up daily to celebrate this book’s release.)

If you’d like to know more about the book before you leave this page, here’s my review from Goodreads:

Flying the Dragon by Natalie Dias Lorenzi

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Every time the characters in this book had a meal, I got hungry for Japanese food–to the point where I actually ran down to the Asian grocery store for ingredients and made myself some yakisoba. =)

More seriously, this was a lovely, sweet read about the challenges of trying to live between two cultures. The two main characters, Japanese Hiroshi and his American cousin Skye, were so easy to connect to; you could really feel their frustration as they tried to learn each others’ languages and as Hiroshi struggled to adapt to life in America. The author did a terrific job of making the most mundane American actions–like eating spaghetti with a fork, or calling a teacher by her last name–feel foreign to Hiroshi. And when Hiroshi shows up at school wearing a face mask because he has a cold, Skye’s mortification for her cousin is almost palpable.

Clearly, I loved many little moments in this book and look forward to its release so that others can enjoy it, too!

View all my reviews