I adore this book so much. It was one of my favorites as a kid and I return to it every few years to give it a reread. It never fails to make me cry. It's not that it's even that sad of a story, but it's so easy to relate to an 11 year old kid who has one favorite thing in the world that gets taken from her. All she wants is to dance, but her dance lessons are replaced by an overbearing Chinese grandmother she's never met who prefers her younger brother.

The resentment Robin feels toward her grandmother and brother always felt so real. Sure, she's acting like a bit of a brat, but she's a kid who's going through a rough time. It'd be unrealistic if she wasn't reacting badly to some of the changes, like having to sleep on a mattress on the floor in her 5 year old brother's room while her grandmother takes over her bedroom. And Robin actively tries to be understanding, for all that she's a kid who can't necessarily see the big picture.

And her love of ballet is so palpable. I cried about four different times reading this as an adult. It does resolve a bit easily, but it's a middle grade book and probably on the younger spectrum even then. I was never bothered by quick turnabout. It actually felt heartwarming, that these characters could understand each other.

I highly recommend this book if you're interested in sweet contemporary MG. This book isn't anything new or different, but it's so incredibly well done. I never read anything else by Laurence Yep as a kid, but as an adult I will probably check out more of his work. Definitely one I'll continue rereading on a regular basis, whenever I want a good cry.