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The Garden of Empress Cassia
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About the Author

Gabrielle Wang is an author and illustrator born in Melbourne of Chinese heritage. Her maternal great grandfather came to Victoria during the Gold Rush and her father from Shanghai. Her stories are a blend of Chinese and Western culture with a touch of fantasy. Gabrielle's first children's novel, The Garden of Empress Cassia, won the 2002 Aurealis Award, was shortlisted for the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards and was a CBCA Notable Book. The Pearl of Tiger Bay was shortlisted for the 2004 Aurealis Award and The Lion Drummer was a Notable Book in the 2009 CBCA Book of the Year Awards. A Ghost in My Suitcase won the 2009 Aurealis Award, was a CBC Notable Book, was shortlisted for the 2011 Sakura Medal and received a Highly Commended in the 2010 Prime Minister's Literary Awards. Her first young adult novel, Little Paradise also received a Highly Commended in the 2011 Prime Minister's Awards. Gabrielle's picture book The Race for the Chinese Zodiac (2010) illustrated by Sally Rippin and Regine Abos was a Notable Book in the CBCA Awards for 2011 and shortlisted for the 2011 YABBA and WAYBRA awards. Her latest books are part of the highly successful 2011 Our Australian Girl series published by Penguin - Meet Poppy, Poppy at Summerhill, Poppy and the Thief and Poppy Comes Home. Gabrielle is an

Reviews

Gr 4-6-Mimi Lu, 12, is a Chinese-Australian schoolgirl who experiences racial slurs and is called Smelly-Loo by her classmates, who make fun of what she brings for lunch. Her father's work as a traditional herbalist solidifies the cultural divide. He takes an extended trip to visit a dying relative at the same time that a sympathetic teacher gives Mimi a box of mysterious Empress Cassia Pastels, and her life changes overnight. Mrs. Lu opens a pop-up teahouse in her husband's absence, and Mimi begins to draw strangely compelling sidewalk art. The garden in the title is a magical place in Chinese legend. In the hands of a chosen few, it is a living piece of art that can be entered into through good or evil. The good return transformed by the experience, but the evil do not return. When mean girl Gemma steals the pastels, she discovers the negative side of the magic they contain. Some generic race-against-time plot twists finish up the story, which includes a popular boy who becomes a fast friend for Mimi, and her father returning from his trip gentler and more accepting of Western ways. The descriptions of the garden and the author's drawings of the places within it offer readers an opportunity to flex their own imaginations.-Lisa Egly Lehmuller, St. Patrick's Catholic School, Charlotte, NC (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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