A NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST Part historical fiction part fable and 100 percent adventure.
Thirteen-year-old Mei reimagines the myths of Paul Bunyan as starring a Chinese heroine while
she works in a Sierra Nevada logging camp in 1885. Cover may vary. Aware of the racial tumult
in the years after the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act Mei tries to remain blissfully
focused on her job her close friendship with the camp foreman's daughter and telling stories
about Paul Bunyan--reinvented as Po Pan Yin (Auntie Po) an elderly Chinese matriarch.
Anchoring herself with stories of Auntie Po Mei navigates the difficulty and politics of
lumber camp work and her growing romantic feelings for her friend Bee. The Legend of Auntie Po
is about who gets to own a myth and about immigrant families and communities holding on to
rituals and traditions while staking out their own place in the United States.
