Starred review from July 24, 2023
Though laid-back California surfer Niko Castadi, 17, is excited to attend Manhattan’s selective Ogilvy Summer Art Institute, he’s nervous that he’ll stand out among the majority-white students. This worry is amplified by sometimes hurtful reminders that he’s the only Chinese American person among his white friends and half-siblings (“You’ll go great on their admissions pamphlets,” one of his friends jokes). Meanwhile, queer, ambitious 15-year-old Ali Tan, who resembles her white mother, is reluctant to divulge her Chinese heritage while at Ogilvy; she plans to use this opportunity to blend in with the crowd, unlike how she lives at home in her largely Asian Queens community. When Niko and Ali begrudgingly pair up for a personal history project, the two discover that they share a Chinese American father. As they explore their sibling connection, their artistic styles and their perceptions of each other clash, forcing them to confront their self-images and internalized biases. Via Niko and Ali’s alternating conversational narration, the Robinson authors, siblings, approach the experience of identifying with multiple cultures within homogenous environments in a simultaneously messy and multifaceted manner, organically building toward hard-earned and affecting self-revelations and making for an emotionally resonant collaboration. Ages 13–up. Agent: Caryn Wiseman, Andrea Brown Literary.