Published: 2022. Author: Wendy Wan-Long Shang. Illustrator: Peijin Yang.
Summary
Ten-year-old Corinne Tan lives in Aspen, Colorado with her mom and sister, Gwynn. And soon they'll her new stepdad, Arne, once he and her mom marry. Corinne and Gwynn like Arne, but there will be a lot to adjust to: his Swedish culture mixing with their Chinese culture, his relatively austere sense of style to their more colorful ones (e.g.; Corinne and Gwynn want to paint one of their walls in the their rooms purple but Arne thinks that's weird), moving into a new house, not sharing a room anymore, nerves over how their dad will react to their mom's remarriage (he knows about it, and the divorce is fairly amicable, but it's stressful for a kid). Corinne is worried that Arne is trying too hard to connect with his soon-to-be step-daughters: he arranges for private ice-skating lessons for Gwynn, and is ready to do the same for Corinne's skiing passion but when she declines she worries he won't be able to bond with her if she doesn't have a passionate hobby. Ugh--and Corinne has to deal with people blaming anyone of Asian descent for, as they call it, "kung flu."
Fortunately that last one is a rare thing (and I'm glad American Girl addresses it; while I don't have Chinese family members, I do have many whose parents or grandparents immigrated from Vietnam, South Korea, and the Philippines; and my youngest's very good friend is first-generation Japanese-American--plus racism is just gross). More at the forefront is how Corinne's best friend Cassidy might react to finding out that Arne is very well-off financially. Cassidy is very in-tune with the price and value of things, and actively distances herself from those she perceives to be rich snobs. Corinne doesn't want Cassidy to think she's become a rich snob, so she feels like she can't tell Cassidy about things like Gwynn's private skating lessons.
Corinne feels like she can't talk about how she wants to decorate her space in her new home to her mom and Arne, like she can't talk about the adjustments of moving in to a fancy house with Cassidy, like she can't talk about her mom remarrying to her dad--she feels like she has to keep it all to herself.
One things Corinne is able to talk about, at least in part, is her desire to train a search-and-rescue dog. She meets one while skiing and falls in love with the concept. Arne is reticent to add a dog to the about-to-be-blended family, but agrees to go to a shelter with the others to look and get ideas. Of course, they fall head over heels for a six-month-puppy named Flurry and get her right then. Arne says it's a wedding present; the big day is later in the week (a small ceremony at a courthouse: Cassidy approves of the budget-saving plan). Corinne is thrilled but her excitement is tempered by wondering if Arne will change his mind if Flurry misbehaves. Oh, no...and what she or Gwynn annoy Arne?
Though Arne seems happy to have Corinne and Gwynn in his life. After the wedding, the sisters spend some time with their dad and return Arne's home--now theirs as well--to see that he's hired an interior decorator to not only paint a purple wall in the room they decided to share, but to paint a mural of a snowy mountains, with plenty of purples in the shadows. The whole room looks like a ski lodge! It's great, except there's nowhere to hang the autographed poster of a ski champion Corinne got from her dad. Like her other worries, she keeps it inside.
Besides, there's too much going on to worry about that now: Flurry really does seem to be an excellent candidate for search and rescue, and Corinne's mom is about to open a new restaurant, serving the traditional Chinese food she learned to make from her mother. Although that comes with its own problems: some passersby see Corinne with Flurry outside the restaurant and one "jokes" about the dog being part of the menu, making Gwynn cry. When Corinne's mom confronts the man, he yells that he wouldn't want to eat there anyway because he'd probably get COVID-19. Corinne is proud of how her mom handled the bully, but nervous that more people like him will cause problems. She's also concerned by how Arne seems to just brush off the incident like it didn't happen.
It all comes to a head during Gwynn's skating competition: Corinne sees a boy who bullied her about "kung flu" and confronts but Arne seems to brush it off again, and Cassidy shows up meaning that Corinne can't hide her stepdad's financial status anymore. Confused and hurting, Corinne runs off a ski run where she and Gwynn bonded, aiming to find the sister shrine they built together. But she gets lost as night falls. It's not until four hours later that Flurry finds her, with the search and rescue team hot on her trail. Corinne is welcomed at the lodge by her entire family: Mom, Dad, Gwynn, and Arne. In seeing her father and stepfather interact, Corinne finally feels like she can love them both without hurting the other. She and Cassidy also make up: Cassidy clarifies that she's not upset about finances but that Corinne kept so much from her...and maybe Cassidy is too quick to judge herself. She even helps Corinne find the perfect place to hang her autographed poster.
Misc
Dedicated to "the girls who keep their faces to the sun." Thanks is given to Greta Gessele, Dr. Jennifer Ho, Angela Liu, Lori Spence, and Dr. William Wei for their contributions and advice.
Corinne and Gwynn love the shade of purple they see on the native columbine flowers. Having been a teenager in 1999, Columbine and Colorado have a particular connection in my mind--I didn't know about the flower until well after the school shooting.
The text mentions a dumpster, not capitalized. This is how I learned that the patent for that particular type of waste container expired in 2014, and therefor doesn't need to be capitalized.
Corinne's parents divorced when the stress of the COVID19 pandemic put the final strains on their marriage.
There's an appendix about a pair of sisters who love skiing, and help train rescue dogs.
