The Many Meanings of Meilan by Andrea WangCall Number: M FIC WAN / Realistic Fiction / Facing Racism / New to the Neighborhood / Gr 4-7
Publication Date: August 2021 (352 pages; Lexile: 730)
After moving from Chinatown to Ohio, Meilan's not quite sure who she is; being renamed at school only makes it worse. She decides she is many Meilans, each inspired by a different Chinese character with the same pronunciation as her name. Sometimes she is Mist, cooling and invisible; other times, she's Basket, carrying her parents' hopes and dreams and her guilt of not living up to them; and occasionally she is bright Blue, the way she feels around her new friend Logan. However, an injustice at school shows her the power of bringing her many selves together.