Other editions of book Child of the Owl

Twelve-year-old Casey is waiting for the day that Barney, her father, hits it big -- 'cause when that horse comes in, he tells her, it's the penthouse suite. But then hr ends up in the hospital, and Casey is sent to Chinatown to live with her grandmother, Paw-Paw. Now the waiting seems longer than ever.Casey feels lost in Chinatown. She's not prepared for the Chinese school, the noisy crowds, missing her father. But Paw-Paw tells her about the mother Casey never knew, and about her family's owl charm and her true Chinese name. And Casey at last begins to understand that this -- Paw-Paw's Chinatown home, her parents' home -- is her home,too.

"I can't remember when Barney's story began but all my life I'd heard this story about how a little girl and her father were going to hit it big one of these days....I knew more about race horses than I knew about myself -- I mean myself as a Chinese."Race horses aren't any help when Barney lands in the hospital and Casey is sent to live with Paw-Paw -- her maternal grandmother-in San Francisco's Chinatown. She's not prepared for the Chinese school, the crowds, the noise, the small room she has to share with Paw-Paw -- and she's not prepared for missing Barney.But Paw-Paw tells Casey about Jeanie, the mother Casey never knew, about her true Chinese name, and about the story of the family's owl charm. This shows Casey that being a child of the owl means that sometimes, like this ancestral owl spirit, you can feel like a stranger, trapped in the wrong place, in the wrong time, even in the wrong body. And as Casey begins to understand the intricacies of Chinatown and the people who become her friends, she realizes that this, Paw-Paw's home, Jeanie and Barney's home, is her home too.Laurence Yep's fine novel illuminates a rich world of truth, humor, and discovery.‘San Francisco’s Chinatown of the early ’60s is the testing ground for [12-year-old] Casey who, in finding her roots, forfeits her faith in her compulsive gambler father.’ —SLJ. ‘Combines the chiseled fantasy of Dragonwings with the anxiety of growing up poor and nonwhite.’ —K. Notable Children's Books of 1977 (ALA)1977 Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for Fiction1978 Fanfare Honor List (The Horn Book)Best Books of 1977 (SLJ)1978 Jane Addams Children's Book AwardChildren's Books of 1977 (Library of Congress)