THE PING-PONG QUEEN OF CHINATOWN

In this gentle YA novel, Austin Ku voices the perspective of a high school junior, who lives in New York City. Felix Ma's college admissions coach (hired by his parents) is pushing him to create an Ivy League-worthy project to describe in his applications. So he works on his own film with his new friends, Gaspard and Cassie. While Felix is platonically drawn to Cassie, his vision for her in the film causes tension between them. Ku uses a flat tone for Felix's mild personality. While the adults are respectfully represented with Chinese-American accents, many of the child characters sound inauthentic. Worst of all is Gaspard, who sounds like Bert from "Sesame Street." Ku's smooth transitions between English and Mandarin are a highlight of the production. S.S. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2024]