Published in 2000
by Pleasant Company Publications
(American Girl)
215 pages, for ages 10 and up

Book Description:

Jinna has always been shy, but when her family moves to America from China, she vows to be the new “Gina” – brave, confident, and quick to learn English.  If only her throat would cooperate. 

Everyone is frustrated by Gina’s silence except Priscilla, a girl with her own need for understanding.  Gina wants to trust her, but can she let Priscilla in on her biggest secret, the private fairy-tale world inside her head?

Awards:
Winner of the 2000 Pleasant T. Rowland Prize for Fiction for Girls
Skipping Stones Honor Award, 2001

Author’s comment:
The inspiration for this book came from two young students from China whom I was helping as a volunteer in one of Seattle’s public elementary schools.  From my own experience living overseas, I know how frustrating it feels when you can’t express yourself in the language of the people around you.  You look and sound dumb. 

Most immigrant children learn English quickly, so I wanted Gina to have another problem to overcome.  Her condition is called “selective mutism,” which means she can speak at home, around familiar people, but cannot speak in public.

I wrote this book to submit to a contest sponsored by Pleasant Company Publications, American Girl’s book publishing arm, which was trying to encourage authors to write for its AG Fiction imprint, for readers aged 10 and up.  The first year they sponsored the contest, I submitted another story, which was rejected. I worked on my fiction writing skills for a year and then submitted this story in August 2000.  It was selected from hundreds of entries to win the contest.  What a thrill!

My daughter, Emily, encouraged me to write a children’s book; she helped me brainstorm the storyline.  When I told her that Gina could not speak in school, Emily told me the ending was “too obvious.”  So I wrote an ending that was not so obvious.

Reviews:
From School Library Journal
 On Jinna's first day of school in this country, she is nervous and confused. Her parents expect her to learn English quickly, but when she is asked to repeat a word in her ESL class, she finds she cannot speak at all, not even in Chinese. The problem grows worse and worse, until Jinna's inability to talk leads her fifth-grade classmates and teachers to believe she is slow or just trying to get attention. Only at home, while inventing the story of Princess Jade-Blossom, which she acts out with characters made of yarn, can Jinna find the courage to speak English. But this is her own secret world, one that she doesn't want to share with anyone, not even Priscilla, the lonely outcast who gradually becomes her friend. Priscilla helps Jinna find the courage to speak in her own way, to prove that even though she finds it hard to talk, she is learning; and that she, too, is brave, clever, and noble, like the princess in her imagination. Wonderfully crafted, with believable and sympathetic characters, Gina Zhang draws readers into Jinna's world of fear and frustration. Princess Jade-Blossom's adventures in the Land of Far Away are interwoven throughout Jinna's own story, paralleling the challenges she faces in her new life in Seattle. This moving and absorbing novel conveys the terrors of having to adapt to a new school and a new language.
Ashley Larsen, Woodside Library, CA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly
When her family moves to Seattle, Wash., from a village in southern China, 12-year-old Jinna must overcome her extreme shyness and learn to speak English. She wants desperately to prove she's as smart as everyone else is, but finds herself unable to will the words out of her mouth. Focusing almost entirely on Jinna's struggles in school, Yang's first novel conveys some of the unique challenges of the immigrant experience. . . .  Jinna is a clever and brave heroine who will leave readers cheering.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This book is currently out of print. If you would like to read it, please visit your local library.

Cover Illustration copyright 2000 by Emma Baker.