When You Wish Upon a Lantern

Starred review from January 2, 2023
Two Taiwanese American teenagers explore friendship, romance, and family in this humorous and sincere novel by Chao (Rent a Boyfriend). Liya Huang and Kai Jiang have been best friends since they were children, but they haven’t spoken in the months following a deeply awkward and embarrassing incident: Liya vomited on Kai while he was trying to ask her out. And their parents’ mutual feud doesn’t help matters. After Liya finds out that her beloved family store, which sells paper wishing lanterns, is in debt and in danger of closing, she embarks on a scheme to try and save it. Believing that there’s no magic in the world, she works to secretly grant customers’ wishes herself, something she used to do with her paternal grandmother but stopped doing after her death. Missing Liya and hoping to rekindle their friendship, Kai offers to help her carry out her mission arranging meet-cutes and perhaps granting a wish of her own. Together, they navigate their insecurities, evolving feelings for one another, and duty to their families. Laugh-out-loud dialogue, the pair’s simultaneously innocent and snarky alternating POVs, and a vividly captured Chicago Chinatown setting imbue this memorable narrative with warmth and joy. Ages 12–up. Agent: Kathleen Rushall, Andrea Brown Literary.