Chinese Cinderella

Mah, A. Y. (1999). Chinese Cinderella. London, UK : Puffin. [autobiography]

From the beginning of her life, Adeline is considered to be bad luck, as her mum died a week after she was born. She feels neglected and denied love by her father and her siblings. This situation even gets worse when her father gets remarried. The stepmother doesn't like all the children of his previous marriage, particularly Adeline.

This story is about how Adeline struggles to find her own place where she feels she belongs. She immerses herself in achieving academic success to win her father's favour. In the end, she wins a scholarship, which takes her to the UK and a new opportunity of life.

How to build a house

Reinhardt, D. (2008). How to build a house. New York, NY : Wendy Lamb Books.

Harper is in flight.

She badly needs a fresh start from emotional devastation brought upon by her father's divorce from her stepmother, Jane, the only mum she has ever known and consequently by her loss of Tess, her step-sister. She decides to escape by joining a volunteering programme to build a house for a family in Tenesseee who lost their home in a tornado. While she is helping a family to pick up pieces of their life after a tornado and move on forwards, Harper also comes to terms with her father's divorce and its consequent emotional devastation.

What makes me interested is the structure of the story. It is broken down into smaller parts referred to here and home, following Harper's stream of consciousness.  

Along for the ride

Dessen, S. (2009). Along for the ride. New York, NY: Viking.

This is a story of Auden who visits her father's new family before she starts university, make friends with local girls and boys and falls in love with Eli, a boy who has to overcome the traumatic loss of his best friend.

While she is challenged by new friends, conflicts between her father and step-mum and new responsibilities of being a big sister to Thisbe, she comes to realise what she has missed so far: to have a care-free childhood. With the help of Maggie and Eli, she can face the challenges and finally feel more assured about who she is and who she would like to be in her relationship with her parents and the others.

Through the main characater Auden, a sensitive girl who has pre-matured before her age, due to her immature and self-centred parents and their unhappy marriage and divorce, Dessen makes us think about the role of parents, the importance of happy childhood, lost opportunities, etc.

Sarah Dessen is a well renowned, prolific writer of YA novels. You can find more information on her and her books on her blog  http://sarahdessen.com/blog/ .