School Library Journal Review
Gr 7-9-San Lee is once again starting a new school. This time it's in Pennsylvania, but they're all really the same: same lunch menus; same classes; same everything. The only thing different in each one is San. Whether it was as a skater dude in California or a Bible-thumper in Alabama, he has reinvented himself at every new school in order to fit in. So who will he be in Pennsylvania? Certainly not himself, the poor adopted Chinese kid whose con-artist father is in prison. This time he wants to be someone different, someone who stands out instead of blending in. Someone who Woody, the intriguing guitar-playing girl in his social-studies class, would find attractive. That definitely isn't San-but it could be. With a little tweaking to his background and some research on Zen Buddhism, he may just become the most popular kid in school. From the teachers to the nuns to the students, the entire cast of this novel is fully developed. The breezy and natural writing style captures eighth-grade dialogue perfectly and the plot is both realistic and original. San Lee's story is that of a brilliant and amusing underdog, and middle schoolers everywhere will identify with his desire to be someone, even if it's someone he's not.-Heather E. Miller, Homewood Public Library, AL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
After San Lee's adoptive father is imprisoned for fraud, the eighth-grader moves with his mother from Texas to Pennsylvania. He has moved often, each time creating new identities; this time he pretends to be a Zen master. He sits zazen on a cold rock near school each morning and says things like, "Thank you for teaching me the lesson of impermanence" (this piece of wisdom comes after a foe ruins his schoolwork). As he hopes, his "uniqueness" impresses Woody, a folk-singing girl with her own family heartache. Together, they embark on a school project about Zen, volunteer at a soup kitchen, and even devise supposedly Zen strategies to help the second-string basketball team take on the starters (this includes a practice game on roller skates). Naturally, they fall for each other, although San thinks she has a crush on a mysterious stranger. Readers will know that it is only a matter of time before San is exposed as a "fake, adopted, research-based Buddhist," but Sonnenblick (Notes from the Midnight Driver, see Paperback Reprints) gives them plenty to laugh at (in one scene, Woody calls on insect-phobic San to remove a centipede from class because of his well-known "reverence for all living things"). Mixed in with more serious scenes (San finally writes his father a letter expressing his anger), these lighter moments take a basic message about the importance of honesty and forgiveness and treat it with panache. Ages 12-up. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
