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Title details for The Ping-Pong Queen of Chinatown by Andrew Yang - Available

The Ping-Pong Queen of Chinatown

by Andrew Yang
Austin Ku
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available

Perfect for fans of Ben Philippe and Mary H. K. Choi, this charming, insightful YA novel follows two high school students who form a complicated, ground-shifting bond while filming a movie.

High school junior Felix Ma wants to prove to his parents that he's not a quitter. After crashing out of piano lessons and competitive ping-pong, Felix starts a film club at his school in a last-ditch attempt to find a star extracurricular for his college applications.

Then he meets Cassie Chow, a bubbly high school senior who shares Felix's anxieties about the future and complicated relationship with parental expectations. Felix feels drawn to Cassie for reasons he can't quite articulate, so as an excuse to see her more, he invites Cassie to star in his short film.

The project starts out as a lighthearted mockumentary. But at the urging of Felix's college admissions coach, who wants to turn the film into essay material, it soon morphs into a serious drama about the emotional scars that parents leave on their kids. As Felix and Cassie uncover their most painful memories, Cassie starts to balk at opening her wounds for the camera.

With his parents and college admissions coach hot on his heels, Felix discovers painful truths about himself and his past—and must decide whether pleasing his parents is worth losing his closest friend.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    July 16, 2024

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780063340442
      • File size: 237510 KB
      • Duration: 08:14:48

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      May 6, 2024
      Chinese American Felix Ma struggles to find his footing after moving from Flushing to suburban Long Island in this spirited novel by Yang (I’m Not Here to Make Friends). After quitting piano and ping-pong, Felix searches for an essay topic that will impress his college admissions coach while also proving his parents “didn’t raise no quitter.” Inspired by his love of movies, Felix starts a classic film club and finds a fellow cinephile in Gaspard Pierre-Duluc, who reads as Black. They become fast friends and decide to film The Ping-Pong Queen of Chinatown, a movie inspired by high school senior Cassie Chow, who lives in Chinatown and with whom Felix has “a history of chance encounters”—including at the Rubenstein Center piano competition and the Citywide Table Tennis Championship. What starts as a ploy to stand out and befriend Cassie turns into a more complicated venture that depicts the sometimes-fraught relationship between the teens and their immigrant parents. Candid prose deftly articulates Felix’s inherent privilege as well as the ways in which Felix and Cassie’s class differences impact their friendship, home lives, and futures. Ages 13–up. Agent: Patrice Caldwell, New Leaf Literary.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      In this gentle YA novel, Austin Ku voices the perspective of a high school junior, who lives in New York City. Felix Ma's college admissions coach (hired by his parents) is pushing him to create an Ivy League-worthy project to describe in his applications. So he works on his own film with his new friends, Gaspard and Cassie. While Felix is platonically drawn to Cassie, his vision for her in the film causes tension between them. Ku uses a flat tone for Felix's mild personality. While the adults are respectfully represented with Chinese-American accents, many of the child characters sound inauthentic. Worst of all is Gaspard, who sounds like Bert from "Sesame Street." Ku's smooth transitions between English and Mandarin are a highlight of the production. S.S. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
    • School Library Journal

      November 1, 2024

      Gr 9 Up-For an across-the-country talking head on screen, Mr. Chin has way too much influence on Felix's future. Hired by his Ivy-obsessed parents to guide his college applications, Mr. Chin's exhortations to stand out lead Felix to make a movie of his own-after starting a school film club (bonus: only other member Gaspard turns out to be a great friend), then casting quixotic Cassie, who twice bested him (in piano and ping-pong), as his leading lady. Over the course of junior year, Felix learns Very Important Lessons about friendship, boundaries, empathy, and-perhaps for the first time-his own true self. Actor Ku's narration tends toward muted, reflecting the weight of other's people's-particularly his immigrant parents'-expectations on Felix. Additional characterizations veer close to ineffective caricatures: overly nasal Gaspard, high-pitched Mom, flighty Cassie. VERDICT Better than a listen, Yang deserves a solid read.

      Copyright 2024 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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