Poor Mei! Some people just don’t get much luck in life. She’s a misfit at her school. Spirits seem attracted to Mei and often provide her with advice that nobody else can hear, a phenomenon which just increases during Hungry Ghost Month. Her father's eyesight is failing and her mother appears to be getting more ill and frail everyday. Her family’s restaurant is next door to a funeral house and graveyard, so it’s hardly any wonder that few customers ever dine there.
The last thing Mei needs is a vampire stalking her.
Well, a different sort of vampire. A child who died years ago and was reanimated by the thoroughly creepy funeral home director. The reanimated, the jiang, need to survive by sucking not blood, but the chi force from a person. Or so the legend goes.
But Little Jiang seems sweet and unassuming, following Mei around and regretting that he can’t partake in any of the magnificent Chinese feasts her parents serve. And could he be the friend that a lonely girl needs?
As a plague of the undead roam the streets of Honeywood, Mei needs to enlist the assistance of the ghosts and other creatures from Chinese mythology to save the town from destruction – and solve the mystery of the creepy funeral home director. And possibly lift a curse that has been plaguing Mei her entire life.
Beautifully illustrated by Katy Jiang with twelve black and white drawings, this book is an own-voice story that satisfies the need for a well written story told from a diverse perspective.
Title: Little Jiang
Author: Shirley Marr
Illustrator: Katy Jiang
Publisher: Fremantle Press, $14.99
Publication Date: 1 October 2020
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781925816471
For ages: 8 - 12
Type: Middle Grade Fiction