From School Library Journal
Grade 4-7-Tiger Lil and her niece, Lily, first introduced in The Case of the Goblin Pearls (HarperCollins, 1997), are back. As part of the festivities for the opening of her friends' new restaurant, Auntie has invited students from two local martial-arts schools to compete in a Lion Dance contest. Kong, one of the competitors, is an angry, native-born Chinese teen who has no patience for Lily, who was born in the U.S. and speaks Chinese only haltingly. He has even less respect for Barry Fisher, the other contestant and the son of the restaurant owners. His mother is of Chinese descent, but his father is not. At the conclusion of the competition, an explosion injures both Barry and his brother. In addition, $2000 has been stolen, and sore loser Kong appears to be a prime suspect. Although prejudiced himself, Kong's teacher instructs his reluctant pupil to assist Auntie Lil and Lily in finding the thief. Yep does a fine job of weaving in lessons on Chinese culture and life in San Francisco's Chinatown as well as the need for racial and ethnic tolerance. As Lily and Kong work together to solve the crime, she begins to understand what lies behind his arrogance and anger. Kong also finds that he has misjudged Lily. Yep's style is entertaining, and the pace of the story moves quickly enough to sustain interest. Fans of lighthearted mysteries will enjoy this book.
Roxanne Burg, Thousand Oaks Library, CACopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Gr. 4^-6. In the second installment in Yep's Chinatown Mystery series, Lily and her great aunt Tiger Lil, a Chinese American movie star turned public-relations guru, have been enlisted to help friends who are opening a restaurant. Unfortunately, opening day festivities go awry when the Lion Dance competition ends in angry words and punches and someone steals money earmarked for charity by rigging an explosion. Was it Kong, the angry martial-arts student; Leonard, the vituperative uncle with the gambling habit; or Bernie, the restaurant's helpful "waitron" ? Yep makes San Francisco's Chinatown more than a simple backdrop here, working in some sense of cultural conflicts within a diverse community as he guides readers through a twisting plot that combines some nice humorous bits with some competently manipulated suspense and some interesting red herrings.
Stephanie Zvirin
