June: Read with PRIDE

[Brianna]

Happy June fellow readers. June is an exciting month for reading. Not only is June PRIDE month but also that start of SSJCPL's Summer Reading. If you have not, please check out https://ssjcpl.org/programs/sumReadin... to find out how you can participate in the challenge. To kick off this exciting month, we will be reading She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan.

“I refuse to be nothing…”

In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness…

In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected.

When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother's identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate.

After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu uses takes the chance to claim another future altogether: her brother's abandoned greatness.

Happy Reading! Stay tuned for the podcast episode about this book. You can listen to the SSJCPL podcast on your favorite podcast platform.