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Summary
Summary
From an author Amy Tan calls "a gem," this is a witty, highly acclaimed novel that's "part Mean Girls, part Lord of the Flies " ( The Bulletin, Starred review) about navigating life in private school while remaining true to yourself.
Lucy is a bit of a pushover, but she's ambitious and smart, and she has just received the opportunity of a lifetime: a scholarship to a prestigious school, and a ticket out of her broken-down suburb. Though she's worried she will stick out like badly cut bangs among the razor-straight students, she is soon welcomed into the Cabinet, the supremely popular trio who wield influence over classmates and teachers alike.
Linh is blunt, strong-willed, and fearless--everything Lucy once loved about herself. She is also Lucy's last solid link to her life before private school, but she is growing tired of being eclipsed by the glamour of the Cabinet.
As Lucy floats further away from the world she once knew, her connection to Linh--and to her old life--threatens to snap. Sharp and honest, Alice Pung's novel examines what it means to grow into the person you want to be without leaving yourself behind.
An NPR Best Book of the Year
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year
A YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults selection
A Texas Tayhas Reading List Selection
A Bank Street College of Education and Children's Book Committee Best Children's Books of the Year with Distinguished Outstanding Merit
"A bracing, enthralling gut-punch and an essential read for teens, teachers, and parents alike." -- Kirkus Reviews , Starred review
"This daring work with an authentic protagonist teaches important lessons about being yourself while navigating through life."-- School Library Journal , Starred review
"Lucy's struggle to find her place and sense of self will have a wide appeal for teen readers and is a welcome addition to the prep-school canon ."-- Booklist , Starred review
" Lyrical, enchanting prose from a narrator with perception so acute she cannot help but share it immerses readers into the very heart of every scene. This is highly recommended for classrooms and libraries [and] a superb choice for book discussion groups and world young adult literature survey courses."--VOYA, Starred review
" Part Mean Girls, part Lord of the Flies, and part Special Topics in Calamity Physics, this well-observed and unsentimental novel taps into what is primal within privileged adolescent girls."-- The Bulletin , Starred review
"Lucy's narration pulls readers alongside her uncertain navigation of two worlds, and we can't help but cheer in solidarity as Lucy recognizes assimilation masquerading as inclusion, refuses to back down, and instead embraces who she is."-- Horn Book Magazine
"In a novel filled with strong visual images , Pung draws a sharp contrast between authenticity and deception, integrity and manipulation. Against the vividly painted backdrops of two very different communities , she traces Lucy's struggle to form a new identity without compromising the values she holds closest to her heart."-- Publishers Weekly
Author Notes
Alice Pung was born in 1981 in Footscray, Australia. She has attended the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. Her first book, Unpolished Gem, won the 2007 Newcomer of the Year Award in the Australian Book Industry Awards. She is the editor of Growing up Asian in Australia (2008). Her other books include Her Father's Daughter and Laurinda, which is being adapted into a film. She is also a solicitor and an art instructor.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 8 Up-The Catholic school Lucy Lam previously attended is a far cry from the opulent Laurinda, a prestigious elite school that awards her an Equal Access scholarship. Lucy, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, brings ethnic diversity to the new school and also a strong sense of moral integrity, which is challenged by a clique of spoiled rich girls known as the Cabinet-girls who intimidate fellow students as well as the faculty. Pung vividly conveys the daily challenges that Lucy faces as she tries to gain acceptance while finding her way in this new environment. Lucy is intelligent and gifted in many ways. Her struggles make her stronger and prove the adage "to thine own self be true." In its printed format, this volume received high praise, and this recorded version is exceptionally well read by Aileen Huyhn. Lucy's story will resonate with teens and with all adults who know the lingering effect of high school memories. VERDICT An excellent selection for teen collections. ["Daring...important.... A strong purchase that will captivate teens and adults alike": SLJ 9/16 starred review of the Knopf book.]-Patricia Ann Owens, formerly at Illinois Eastern Community Colleges, Mt. Carmel, IL © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Lucy Lam, a Vietnam War refugee, lives in a dilapidated Australian town among families like her own: poor, hardworking immigrants who dream of a better life for their children. Lucy gets a chance to make her parents proud when she wins a scholarship to a prestigious private school, but when she arrives at Laurinda, where "the beauty snuck up on you, like a femme fatale with a rock," it's like landing in another world, where her parents' work ethic doesn't apply. At Laurinda, power is valued over brilliance, and the school is ruled by a trio of girls, the "Cabinet," who brazenly torment weaker classmates and undermine teachers. Lucy is both repelled and fascinated by these girls, but to be accepted into their clique means leaving her old ideals behind. In a novel filled with strong visual images, Pung (An Unpolished Gem) draws a sharp contrast between authenticity and deception, integrity and manipulation. Against the vividly painted backdrops of two very different communities, she traces Lucy's struggle to form a new identity without compromising the values she holds closest to her heart. Ages 12-up. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
No one is more surprised than Lucy Lam when her essay wins her the Equal Access scholarship to attend an elite girls school. Setting out every morning for Laurinda Ladies College, she leaves behind her shabby Melbourne suburb, Chinese-Vietnamese-immigrant parents, baby brother Lamb, and her friends (including closest companion Linh), determined to make good on the opportunity Laurinda and its access to wealth and success offers. A powerful trio of white girls called the Cabinet takes an interest in Lucy, who marvels at their glamour and steadily becomes more ashamed of her own home life, her fathers factory job, and her mothers finger-shredding work sewing clothes in the garage. Lucy feels she is losing herself in trying to be everything the school and her peers want of her, and when she begins to resist, it becomes clear that Laurindas open doorsas well as the Cabinets open armscome at a price. Lucys unwillingness to conform to the role of ethnic novelty or to participate in the toxic school culture quickly turn her from model minority to targeted pariah. Pungs novel, first published in Australia as Laurinda, is written in first-person missives to Linh (whose identity is eventually revealed in an effective twist) that double as diary entries. Lucys narration pulls readers alongside her uncertain navigation of two worlds, and we cant help but cheer in solidarity as Lucy recognizes assimilation masquerading as inclusion, refuses to back down, and instead embraces who she is. anastasia m. collins(c) Copyright 2016. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* This Australian author's beautifully written YA debut follows a lower-middle-class Chinese Australian teen who wins a prestigious scholarship to an exclusive all-girls school and struggles to find herself among the snobby mean girls. In a letter to Linh, the constant friend she's left behind, 15-year-old Lucy recounts her first year as an Equal Access scholarship student at Laurinda Ladies' College. Once fearlessly outspoken and full of fun, Lucy has become withdrawn and unsure of herself. A small group of rich, spoiled, and casually racist girls, known as the Cabinet, dominates her class and play horrible pranks on students and teachers with impunity. With the help of a male teacher and a popular boy from a nearby private boys school who's not ashamed of being lower-middle class, Lucy learns to stand up for herself and reject the Cabinet. Lucy's biting comments about Laurinda and her struggle to reconcile her school and home life in the dilapidated and rundown town of Stanley effectively ring true as she realizes her family's immigrant life there is precious. The reveal of the truth of her relationship with Linh is seamlessly incorporated into the narrative. Lucy's struggle to find her place and sense of self will have a wide appeal for teen readers and is a welcome addition to the prep-school canon.--Rawlins, Sharon Copyright 2016 Booklist