{"id":36916,"date":"2024-04-02T21:38:53","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T01:38:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=36916"},"modified":"2024-04-02T21:39:55","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T01:39:55","slug":"review-of-dragon-pearl-by-yoon-ha-lee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=36916","title":{"rendered":"Review of Dragon Pearl, by Yoon Ha Lee"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/dragon_pearl_large.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/dragon_pearl_large.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"166\" height=\"250\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-39740\" \/><\/a><em>Dragon Pearl<\/em><\/p>\n<p>by Yoon Ha Lee<\/p>\n<p>Rick Riordan Presents (Disney Hyperion), 2019.  310 pages.<br \/>\nStarred Review<br \/>\nReview written December 2, 2019, from a library book<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m finding that I especially like the <em>Rick Riordan Presents<\/em> books that don\u2019t just fit another culture\u2019s mythology into the formula of Rick Riordan\u2019s <em>Percy Jackson<\/em> series, but instead does something new.  <em>Dragon Pearl<\/em> achieves that beautifully \u2013 taking Korean supernatural beings and putting them in space.<\/p>\n<p>Our main character, Min, is a fox spirit, like the other members of her family.  Fox spirits are generally not trusted, because they are shape shifters who can Charm the thoughts and emotions of people around them.<\/p>\n<p>When an inspector comes to their planet claiming that her brother Jun was a deserter from the Space Forces and tried to steal the powerful Dragon Pearl, Min knows that couldn\u2019t possibly be true.  And she decides to set off looking for him and bring Jun home.<\/p>\n<p>Along the way, Min gets into a lot of danger, makes a bargain with a ghost, and impersonates a cadet from the same ship Jun supposedly deserted from.<\/p>\n<p>I like the way in this book, supernatural beings are taken for granted, not some sort of big secret that only Min knows about.  Two of the friends she makes are a goblin and a dragon \u2013 both of whom spend most of their time in human form, as she does.  I like that the goblin is nonbinary, and Min naturally addresses them with they\/them pronouns.  Of course, as a shapeshifter, Min thinks nothing of taking either female or male forms at different times.<\/p>\n<p>This adventure combines Korean mythology with outer space and futuristic high-tech gadgetry in a delightful way.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/rickriordan.com\/\">RickRiordan.com<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/DisneyBooks.com\">DisneyBooks.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/136801335X\/sonderbooksco-20\" target=\"outside\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n<p>Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.<\/p>\n<p>Disclaimer:  I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time.  The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n<p>What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n<p>*Note* To try to catch up on posting reviews, I\u2019m posting the oldest reviews I\u2019ve written on my blog without making a page on my main website. They\u2019re still good books!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee Rick Riordan Presents (Disney Hyperion), 2019. 310 pages. Starred Review Review written December 2, 2019, from a library book I\u2019m finding that I especially like the Rick Riordan Presents books that don\u2019t just fit another culture\u2019s mythology into the formula of Rick Riordan\u2019s Percy Jackson series, but instead does [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,9,18,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-childrens-fiction-review","category-fantasy","category-science-fiction","category-starred-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36916"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43541,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36916\/revisions\/43541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}