BookDragon Books for the Diverse Reader

Zen and the Art of Faking It by Jordan Sonnenblick

Zen and the Art of Faking ItWith a father in jail and a mother trying hard to keep her family together, San Lee’s peripatetic home life is anything but zen. He’s entering yet another new school as an outside eighth-grader – and moving from big town Houston to small-town Pennsylvania isn’t exactly his idea of fun.

When he answers a few too many questions correctly in his new social studies class (he did just have ancient religions at his last school), suddenly, San becomes the local Zen Master … and most unlikely school hero to boot. Being a Chinese adoptee (of white parents) even helps to make him look the part.

San’s antics, especially in trying to get the girl (whose own mother/daughter travails are especially touching), are laugh-out-loud funny. Finally adding some truth to his runaway new life, however, is not without some growing pains. Jordan Sonnenblick captures the complications of teenage angst with a just-right blend of too-silly lightness and drama-queen gravitas.

Readers: Middle Grade, Young Adult

Published: 2007

Discussion