Hungry Bones
by Louise Hung (Author)
Molly Teng sees things no one else can.
By touching the belongings of people who have died, she gets brief glimpses into the lives they lived. Sometimes the "zaps" are funny or random, but often they leave her feeling sad, drained, and lonely.
The last thing Jade remembers from life is dying. That was over one hundred years ago. Ever since then she's been trapped in the same house watching people move in and out. She's a 'hungry ghost' reliant on the livings' food scraps to survive. To most people she is only a shadow, a ghost story, a superstition.
Molly is not most people. When she moves into Jade's house, nothing will ever be the same--for either of them. After over a century alone, Jade might finally have someone who can help her uncover the secrets of her past, and maybe even find a way out of the house--before her hunger destroys them both.
Locate at a Library Near You WorldCat is the world's largest library catalog, helping you find library materials online.
Find books about:
Publishers Weekly
Two lonely Chinese American girls, one living and one dead, seek to solve a spectral mystery in Hung's eerie debut. Thirteen-year-old Molly Teng and her mother move often to keep ahead of consequences caused by Molly's "zaps," an ability through which touching an inanimate object will "show me its history--in feelings, in little bits of memory." After arriving in Buckeye Creek, Tex., she discovers a ghost girl named Jade who died in Molly's new house 120 years ago. Jade is a "hungry ghost," who must feed on human food to survive. The girls' alternating perspectives track their developing friendship as they bond over meals during their late-night Second Dinner Club; they resolve to uncover Jade's past, which Jade has mostly forgotten, to keep her memory alive and thus prevent her from disappearing. As they delve into their inquiry, they discover that Jade's death was caused by racist actions against Chinese immigrants. Using empathetic yet incisive language to skillfully balance the intensity of past events with steadily increasing stakes tied to Jade's presence, Hung cloaks history lessons in ghostly garb to showcase the palpable echoes of racism against Chinese Americans that still haunts contemporary society. Ages 8-12. (Oct.)
Copyright 2024 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.
JUV013060 - Juvenile Fiction | Family | Parents
JUV069000 - Juvenile Fiction | Ghost Stories
