THE NINE MOONS OF HAN YU AND LULI

THE NINE MOONS OF HAN YU AND LULI by Karina Yan Glaser

Karina Yan Glaser, author of The Vanderbeekers and Duet for Home, is back with a heart warming tale set in two different places during two difficult time periods in history. The stories swirl around two Chinese children: Han Yu in 731 in China and Luli in New York in 1931. Unbeknownst to them both, there is a bond that connects their stories across the years in a beautiful way.

Han Yu is a unique child. Known to understand animals in a way that most can't, it's said that a tiger protects him wherever he goes.

When a horrible sickness breaks out in his village and affects his family, Han Yu steps up to fulfill a job his father had lined up making deliveries along The Silk Road. Known to be fraught with dangers and filled with thieves and worse, Han Yu knows his family desperately needs the money this delivery will bring. The ultimate question is will he have a family to come home to if he makes it?

Luli's family has been scrimping and saving every way they can to purchase the building they live in. With a restaurant, a giftshop, and a handful of apartments, this building represents their future in the United States. They almost have it paid off when the effects of The Great Depression come knocking on their door Now, no one comes to the restaurant or the gift shop. Desperate to restore hope, Luli works on a plan to honor her people that may have a much bigger effect than she anticipated.

This is a moving, coming-of-age read. Sometimes in life, difficult circumstances occur. The solutions that present themselves may involve kids stepping up to monumental tasks. The beautiful part is sometimes it works, and a rewarding lesson is learned along the way that we all have strengths in different areas and that that strength doesn't need to be the same as someone else's.

HEADS UP - There are some light Chinese myth/magic type references.