Karmel Schreyer,
Naomi: A Singing Bird Will Come.
Great Plains Publications, 2002

A Singing Bird Will Come, subtitled Naomi in Hong Kong, is the sequel to Karmel Schreyer's first novel for "young adults", Naomi: The Strawberry Blonde of Pippu Town. Although some reference is made to the earlier book, Singing Bird can be read alone.

Naomi is a Canadian teen who accompanies her divorced mother to a teaching job at the Canadian School in Hong Kong. The book deals with serious issues: teen pregnancy, divorce, inter-generational and inter-cultural relations, peer pressure, etc., but does so with a light touch.

There are many contexts into which one could put this book, for example, as a discussion of teen issues (such as the novels by Mary Hooper) or as a novel that describes life in a "foreign culture" to English-speakers (as does, for example, Julia Alvarez's new book Before We Were Free).

But undoubtedly the most important aspect of the book for those of us here is that this is just about the only teen novel that is set in Hong Kong, written by someone who knows the place (Martin Booth's Music on the Bamboo Radio is the only other one that comes to mind).

For expat teens new to Hong Kong, there will be some valuable observations. For teens already well-ensconced in Hong Kong here, there are many places and situations in the book that are instantly recognizable. That alone will win the book many friends here in Hong Kong.
And who knows? It might even convince some teens to take up tai chi as Naomi does.

Suitable for about 12 and up.

Elaine Leung, The Asian Review of Books