Book Review – Under A Painted Sky by Stacey Lee
According to Wikipedia, Chinese New Year is known as the Spring Festival in China and the Lunar New Year in Asia. New Years Day in a particular year falls on the day of the new moon between January 21st and February 20th. In 2018, it fell on February 16th, one of the days I was reading this book. I didn’t know their years started and ended on different dates than our traditional new year. Each year is assigned an animal as a zodiac sign. 2018 is the year of the dog.
Our neighborhood Chinese restaurant has placemats which list all of the signs for the Chinese zodiac. It is always fun to find out what sign we are, what traits are associated with that sign, and how well they match up. In Under a Painted Sky, Stacey Lee’s character, Samatha, makes references to Chinese Horoscopes when se does something. She would say, “he did that because he was born in the year of the rabbit.” I found it an interesting way to draw in some additional Chinese culture into her story.
Lee includes characters of different races and cultures in her story, which was and is still a part of American culture. I did the same thing with my book, The Hard Way.
Selma’s Book Review
Book Title
Under A Painted Sky
Author
Stacey Lee
Type of Book
Young Adult Fiction – Adventure/Historical
Background
The author, Stacey Lee, takes us back to Missouri in 1849. Time when people of many races and cultures were moving westward to find riches and the American dream. Published in 2015.
Summary of the story
Samantha was a Chinese American who had recently relocated to St. Joseph, Missouri from New York City. Her dream was to play her violin, which she called Lady Tin-Yin, in a conservatory where she would teach with her father and her father’s friend Mr. Trask. Her plans take a terrible turn when her father is killed in a fire and she winds up killing a man. She flees the city with a teenage slave named Annamae westward on the Oregon Trail in search of Mr. Trask and Annamae’s brother Issac. To hide their identities, they dress up as teenage boys and meet up with a group of them on the trail.
Reactions to the book
I really liked the story. It was engaging, and I had a hard time putting it down. I was drawn into the historical setting and I felt like I was really there. It was fun to watch how the girls keep their identity a secret from the boys in the group. I could feel the tension between the characters as their relationships developed, but there were no actual love type scenes until the end of the book.
This book would be a great YA read for someone into adventure type books. Themes of friendship and loyalty shine through. There is a little bit of a romance feel in it which didn’t overwhelm the story until the end. I think most readers would enjoy it. Since there isn’t any swearing or sexual scenes in the story, I believe this book would also be good for a late preteen reader.
If you interested in learning more about the author, you can check out her website, Stacey Lee, Author or follow her on Twitter @staceyleeauthor
If you are looking for a copy of her book, here is a link to it on Amazon.com Under A Painted Sky
If you are looking for another YA read, check out the books tab on my website for a link to my first book, The Hard Way. Avaiable in e-book and paperback.
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