Leigh Chen Sanders is sure of one thing, and that is that her mother turned into a bird after her death by suicide. Leigh is convinced the bird wants her to go to Taiwan and to meet her maternal grandparents. Meanwhile, Leigh wants to find the bird again, so she travels to Taiwan and thus begins a whimsical journey of her encounters with a ghost, meeting the grandparents she never knew much about, and uncovering family secrets. While all this happens, she grieves and tries to heal. Through art and through family history, she discovers more about her dead mother than she ever knew before. She uncovers mysteries surrounding her mother and the severity of depression her mother battled with. This story is about a teenage girl dealing with her grief and trying to come to terms with the fact that she wasn’t with her mother when her mother died. This book talks about the experience of being mixed race and it talks about complicated family relations. This book has a dark undertone and is a good representation of how a teenage girl navigates her emotions while going through pain. Through magic and realism, past and present, hope and despair, this story speaks about art, culture,family, love, and friendships. The poetic writing makes the reading experience beautiful and tender.

-Ariana