By Grace Lin
A funny, warm year in the life of a Taiwanese-American girl figuring out where she fits, one science fair and best friend at a time.
It's the Year of the Dog, which is supposed to be the year you find yourself and find your best friend. Pacy is the only Taiwanese-American girl in her class, and she spends the year trying on ideas of who she might be: a scientist, a writer, an actress in the school play. Along the way she makes a new best friend, enters a book contest, eats a lot of her mother's cooking, and slowly starts to figure out that she doesn't have to be just one thing.
This is a gentle, low-stakes one, and that's the point. The chapters are short, the voice is funny and plain, and the whole book is really just a good year in a real-feeling family, with little stories from Pacy's mother tucked between the chapters like snacks. A child who is not sure they like chapter books can settle into this one easily, and a child from any background will recognize the wish to just belong somewhere. It's an especially lovely mirror for a child who rarely sees their own family on the page.