Girl in Reverse

Ever since age four when Lily joined the Firestone household, where “hard topics are... wrapped in sandpaper and swallowed,” she has wondered why her parents adopted her. When the advent of the Korean War exacerbates the barrage of ethnic slurs 17-year-old Lily, her school’s only Asian student, endures (“Now prejudice is free to eat in the lunchroom, ride the bus, join fraternities, sneeze, cough, speak up”), she is increasingly less able to “make a joke of it,” as her father advises. Lily’s determination to resist her tormenters sparks a search for her pre-adoption origins and core identity. Great works of art, like Rodin’s The Thinker and Picasso’s Girl Before a Mirror, reverberate throughout the story, while support comes from unexpected corners: art student Elliot, whose knack for caricature provides a potent weapon; Mr. Howard, the African-American school janitor; Mr. and Mrs. Chow, whose “foresight and guts” have brought them success; and, most movingly, Lily’s intrepid younger brother Ralph. Stuber (Crossing the Tracks) creates a remarkable journey of self-discovery, inner resilience, and the fragile, surprising, and exquisite complexity of family. Ages 12–up. Agent: Ginger Knowlton, Curtis Brown. (May)