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A review by libreroaming
The Case of the Goblin Pearls by Nicholas Krenitsky, Laurence Yep
4.0
Twelve-year old Lily Lew has just learned her Hollywood famous Auntie, and namesake, is coming for a job promoting the Chinatown New Year's parade. Auntie Tiger Lil is a firecracker character, full of spunky attitude that makes for a perfect detective character. Think Miss Marple meets Charlie Chan meets Bruce Lee. While Tiger Lil is no longer in the prime days where she was making TV serials of an action star, she and her niece end up embroiled in a crime syndicate when a burglar makes off with some priceless pearls in the middle of the parade.
The mystery itself is slight, meaning there's really no clues or surprises so much as an obvious path to the culprits and no hidden clues so much as ones Lily (in one case, literally) stumbles over. The case tying with the sweatshop dilemma of one of Lily's classmates doesn't feel clunky at all, and really works as a stronger story than the issue of chasing down the pearls.
One thing I will point out, this book was written in the 1990's and it bears a lot of the trappings. Kids reading it nowadays may wonder what faxes are or why Lily searched for VHS tapes of her Auntie's movies. Likewise, a bit of the slang might feel dated. Otherwise, it's a good fourth grade novel mainly carried on the shoulders by a very effusive character of Tiger Lil, her audience-by-proxy niece, and social issues that can inhabit Chinese-American's lives. The mystery is not the draw, and kids demanding contemporary novels may find this too old to count.
The mystery itself is slight, meaning there's really no clues or surprises so much as an obvious path to the culprits and no hidden clues so much as ones Lily (in one case, literally) stumbles over. The case tying with the sweatshop dilemma of one of Lily's classmates doesn't feel clunky at all, and really works as a stronger story than the issue of chasing down the pearls.
One thing I will point out, this book was written in the 1990's and it bears a lot of the trappings. Kids reading it nowadays may wonder what faxes are or why Lily searched for VHS tapes of her Auntie's movies. Likewise, a bit of the slang might feel dated. Otherwise, it's a good fourth grade novel mainly carried on the shoulders by a very effusive character of Tiger Lil, her audience-by-proxy niece, and social issues that can inhabit Chinese-American's lives. The mystery is not the draw, and kids demanding contemporary novels may find this too old to count.