When You Wish Upon a Lantern

December 1, 2022
Best friends reunite to make other people's wishes come true--and maybe even their own. Chicago teens Liya Huang and Kai Jiang, childhood friends whose families own a lantern shop and a bakery respectively, have been avoiding one another ever since Liya threw up her boba tea on Kai and he assumed it was because he had asked her out. Their friendship is further strained by the fact that their families have been feuding since a dumpster incident in their shops' shared Chinatown alley. Nǎinai, Liya's paternal grandmother, was the peacekeeper, but since her passing, every argument between the families has only escalated. Also, Liya has stopped trying to make customers' wishes--written on the shop's lanterns--come to pass, something she used to secretly do with Nǎinai. Eager to fight her loneliness from missing both Kai and her Nǎinai, she decides to start working on granting wishes again, beginning with arranging a meet-cute between two community elders. Liya enters the Jiang's bakery to order a mooncake as part of her plan, and Kai, who misses her and is dealing with strained family relationships, offers to be her new wish-granting partner. Their friends-to-lovers romance is an endlessly frustrating yet adorable cycle during which there are frequent misunderstandings and oh-so-close moments. Chao immerses readers in Chinese culture, incorporating a variety of Chinese traditions and folktales that are relevant to the couple's story. As delectable as a mooncake. (note about Mandarin, author's note, glossary) (Fiction. 12-18)

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Starred review from January 2, 2023
Two Taiwanese American teenagers explore friendship, romance, and family in this humorous and sincere novel by Chao (Rent a Boyfriend). Liya Huang and Kai Jiang have been best friends since they were children, but they haven’t spoken in the months following a deeply awkward and embarrassing incident: Liya vomited on Kai while he was trying to ask her out. And their parents’ mutual feud doesn’t help matters. After Liya finds out that her beloved family store, which sells paper wishing lanterns, is in debt and in danger of closing, she embarks on a scheme to try and save it. Believing that there’s no magic in the world, she works to secretly grant customers’ wishes herself, something she used to do with her paternal grandmother but stopped doing after her death. Missing Liya and hoping to rekindle their friendship, Kai offers to help her carry out her mission arranging meet-cutes and perhaps granting a wish of her own. Together, they navigate their insecurities, evolving feelings for one another, and duty to their families. Laugh-out-loud dialogue, the pair’s simultaneously innocent and snarky alternating POVs, and a vividly captured Chicago Chinatown setting imbue this memorable narrative with warmth and joy. Ages 12–up. Agent: Kathleen Rushall, Andrea Brown Literary.

February 15, 2023
Grades 8-12 Best friends Liya Huang and Kai Jiang have grown distant after an embarrassing incident comes between them, though, privately, neither wants to stop being friends. It suits their families, however, whose businesses in Chicago's Chinatown are locked in a petty feud. Liya tries to distract herself by working at her parents' store, When You Wish Upon a Lantern, and resuming a clandestine service she and her late năinai (grandmother) used to do: making wishes that people place in their sky lanterns come true. One wish requires a matchmaking scheme that takes Liya to the Jiang's bakery, happily reuniting her with Kai, who becomes her new partner in wish-granting. Hints of romance thread through this sweet story, which also confronts the starker realities of parental pressure and financial difficulty--the Huangs' business is being threatened with eviction. Nevertheless, Chao keeps the narrative aloft with its buoyant message of making one's own magic. Chapters are narrated from Liya's and Kai's perspectives, and a guide to Mandarin aids readers with words' pronunciations and meanings. A culturally rich, luminous love story.

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February 24, 2023

Gr 7 Up-Liya's and Kai's families own stores next to each other in Chicago's Chinatown neighborhood, but their fathers are in a feud over the shared alley and dumpster. Liya and Kai used to be best friends who both secretly wished for something more, until an epic misunderstanding ended in Liya throwing up all over him. When Liya discovers her family's wishing lantern store's financial problems, she extends the olive branch so Kai can use his baking skills to help her make wishes come true-something she used to do with her late Năinai. Parental expectations, sibling rivalry, grief over Năinai's passing, self-discovery, and blooming love make this a summer to remember as Kai and Liya help out their community (including an adorable subplot where they play matchmaker for elderly neighbors). Told in alternating chapters, Chao's narrative has Kai and Liya both face distinct issues with their families and their plans for the future, and they remain supportive friends even as they sort out their tangled romantic feelings. In addition to loving each other, their love for their community is palpable and refreshing, grounding this tale in a strong sense of place. VERDICT A delicious story of best friends falling in love that belongs in most collections.-Jennifer Rothschild

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