The Crystal Ribbon

Celeste Lim

Jan 2017 · Sold by Scholastic Inc.

About this ebook

Wonder, mysticism, heartache, and joy are the stones that set the path to one girl's journey as her destiny unfolds.

In the village of Huanan, in medieval China, the deity that rules is the Great Huli Jing. Though twelve-year-old Li Jing's name is a different character entirely from the Huli Jing, the sound is close enough to provide constant teasing-but maybe is also a source of greater destiny and power. Jing's life isn't easy. Her father is a poor tea farmer, and her family has come to the conclusion that in order for everyone to survive, Jing must be sacrificed for the common good. She is sold as a bride to the Koh family, where she will be the wife and nursemaid to their three-year-old son, Ju'nan. It's not fair, and Jing feels this bitterly, especially when she is treated poorly by the Koh's, and sold yet again into a worse situation that leads Jing to believe her only option is to run away, and find home again. With the help of a spider who weaves Jing a means to escape, and a nightingale who helps her find her way, Jing embarks on a quest back to Huanan--and to herself.

About the author

Of Chinese descent, author Celeste Lim was born and raised in Malaysia, where she spent the first seventeen years of her life envious of the children she read about in English storybooks. Now, she has the desire to give the same gift-the awareness of exciting worlds that exist beyond where we live-to children through her own writing. A graduate of the MFA in Writing for Children program at The New School, Celeste lives in Queens with her Pomeranian, Hamlet. The Crystal Ribbon is her first novel.