9781368099073: The Last Rhee Witch
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 1368099076 ISBN 13: 9781368099073
Verlag: Disney Hyperion, 2024

Inhaltsangabe

A 2025 Children’s Book Council Favorites Award Winner in three categories: Middle-Grade, Teacher, & Librarian!


For fans of The Last Fallen Star, Witchlings, and Ghost Squad, a heartfelt middle grade debut where Korean folklore is all too real and summer camp includes a gwishin haunting.

You couldn’t hold onto everything and everyone. You had to choose. And Ronnie only had two hands.

Since her mother died when she was five years old, it’s always just been Ronnie Miller and her dad. Two Korean Americans who, thanks to Ronnie’s dad’s adoption by white parents, have never felt all that Korean. But Ronnie is okay with that—as long as she has her dad and her best friend Jack, Ronnie is 99% certain she can get through anything.

But as much as she wants everything to stay the same, the world—and her dad—has other plans. Now, Ronnie and Jack are headed away to sleepaway camp for the first time ever. Camp Foster promises all of the outdoorsy activities that Ronnie has so far managed to avoid: ropes courses, scavenger hunts, kayaking on the lake. Ugh. But she can do this. As long as she has Jack.

As it turns out, an old manor in the woods is the kind of place that’s crawling with secrets. Secrets like a mysterious gwishin haunting the grounds, a blood-red scarf wrapped too tightly around her ghostly neck. And a witch-hunting dokkaebi intent on finding and silencing the last Rhee witch. And the strange habit all the counselors have of rhyming when they speak . . . just like Ronnie has begun to do lately.

For a girl who wants everything to stay the same, nothing is scarier than all the changes Camp Foster brings. New friends. New foes. Souls with unfinished business. And, possibly worst of all, revelations that disprove everything Ronnie knew to be true.

Jenna Lee-Yun combines magic, mystery, suspense, and humor into a ghostly action-packed contemporary fantasy.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Jenna Lee-Yun resides in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, son, daughter, and mini-goldendoodle. She loves nothing more than writing middle-grade and young adult novels with a large cup of coffee. She reads as much as she can and finds there is never enough time to get ahead of her TBR pile. She is overjoyed to see so much more diversity in children's books. The Last Rhee Witch is her debut novel.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Standing in the parking lot at Camp Foster, Ronnie Miller reminded herself that ghosts did not exist. She was ninety-nine percent sure, which was as certain as a person could be. One pecent was set aside for just-in-case and you-never-know. Because there should be a percent likelihood for everything. Even the impossible.

Like that gleaming white figure hovering in the treetops . . . a hundred feet in the air . . . with a streak of crimson running down the front. Ronnie was ninety-nine percent certain it was the morning mist messing with her vision. And after staring at nothing but mountains and forests on the long drive to Central Washington, you're bound to start seeing things—eighty-five percent positive.

Squeezing her eyes shut, Ronnie gave them a good rub. When she opened them again, there was no white ghost. No red streak. Only gray mist. She sagged with relief. If she started seeing things that weren't there, her dad would worry. And by the look on her dad's face as he stepped out of the SUV, he was already plenty worried.

"Are you sure you're up for this?" The crease between his brows deepend as he glanced around the parking lot filling up with other kids and their parents. "I mean, with everything that's going on?"

By everything, he meant the way Ronnie had been rhyming when she spoke. It began a few months ago on her twelfth birthday. At first, he thought it was clever. But then he realized she couldn't control it, especially when she was upset.

Like when he broke their birthday tradition of cooking their favorite foods together at home. Not only had he insisted on going to a restaurant for Ronnie's birthday this year, he also invited Kristie-with-a-K. Aplparently, she'd been dying to meet Ronnie. Ronnie, on the ohter hand, had never heard of Kristie—with a K or otherwise. At least eighty percent of Ronnie's sentences that night were in rhyme.

It must have freaked Kristie out, because Ronnie never saw her again. She could live with that. But it freaked her dad out, too, which troubled ronnie. He worried it had something to do with Ronnie losing her mom at a young age. Or her having a single dad. Or being Korean. Or not being Korean enough because her Korean dad was adopted by white parents. And like any problem he couldn't  fix with modern medicine, he either ignored it or got rid of it.

First came the new rule of speaking only Korean or Konglish (a mix of Korean and English words) at home. Ronnie was about as fluent in Korean as a three-year-old and her dad wasn't much better, so there was a lot of bad miming and awkward misunderstandings. And Ronnie always felt a little embarrassed speaking Korean beccause she was sure she had an American accent. It wasn't long before Ronnie was rhyming more than ever.

When that failed, her dad had brought up summer camp.

"It'll give you a chance to try something new!" he'd said two weeks ago at the medical center he worked at.

Ronnie's back was to him as she organized the books on his office shelf. She could hear the forced, over-the-top smile in his voice, but Ronnie knew what was really going on: He was getting rid of the problem. He was getting rid of her.

"But I like the things I do now," she'd protested as she squeezed Digestive Health into its place to the right of Clinical Gastroenterology.

"You'll get to do all sorts of kid things—normal things—like swimming and kayaking. I hear there's a ropes course. And campfires with s'mores."

Ronnie waited for the punch line. Although she was a really good swimmer, her dad made her take swim lessons every summer because drowning was "one of the top five causes of death for people aged one to fourteen years." He kept her off ladders because "the second leading cause of uninentional injury deaths worldwide" was falling. Not to mention the seasonal fire drills—at home. Her dad was famously risk-averse. So this talk of water sports, heights, and playing with fire had to be a joke.

"Maybe you'll even make new friends!" he added, which was not even a little bit funny.

Ronnie spun around to face him. "I already have friends, Dad."

He crossed his arms. "Besides Jack. Who, by the way, is also going to be at camp."

Ronnie mirrored his crossed arms, annoyed that her dad would use Jack to get rid of her. Then she was doubly annoyed that Jack had suddenly become the kind of kid that did stuff like go to summer camp and try new things and make new friends. Her stomach began to twist into a knot, but she smiled against it—big and radiant and aimed straight at her dad. "I have you!" she said cheerfully. "And Julie on Monday through Wednesday, Edgar on Thursday and Friday, and Patty on call!"

Her dad's smile fell. He dropped his arms, letting them hang at his sides. "They're front-desk staff, Ronnie. And I am your friend, but I'm also your dad. And as your dad, I say hanging out in a waiting room is no way for a kid to spend her summer."

"But I like our routines." The book in her hand was suddenly very heavy. "I thought you liked me coming to work with you."

"Of course I do. But a new routine might be in order. We can consider clubs when school starts up again." He saw Ronnie's grimace and tried again. "What about sports?"

"Why not just send me away to boarding school?" she said under her breath.

Her dad didn't seem to hear her. He dragged a hand down his face and started mumbling to himself. "I don't know. A new routine might not be enough. Maybe what we need is a fresh start. A new city—with a strong Korean community. Or maybe a mother figure—"

Move? Stepmom? The last thing she needed was another Korean adult shaking their head at her for not being able to speak Korean better. That only made her want to never speak it at all. The knot in Ronnie's stomach pulled tighter and tighter until she blurted out, "I want to go to summer camp!"

And that had been that.

***

"It's only two weeks, Dad," she said now. "I'll be okay." I just have to watch the words that I say. The rhyme crashed into the back of her teeth and her stomach somersaulted.

Two weeks.

It wasn't long enough for her dad to move them across the country or get married, but it might be long enough for Ronnie to get rid of her impulsive rhyming so her dad would stop trying to get rid of her. Plus, she and Jack could still do most of the things they usually did at home during the summer. Yes. She could definitely survive summer camp for two measly weeks—ninety-nine percent positive.

Two weeks away from home to stop her dad from turning their lives upside down.

Two weeks to fix it all and return everything to normal.

"Wait." Her dad pulled a duffel bag from the car. "Two weeks? I only signed up for one week, six days, and nineteen hours. We're going to have to rethink this whole summer camp business."

Ronnie rolled her eyes extra hard to mask a smile. He hadn't cracked a proper dad joke since her rhyming began. Hope fluttered in her chest. This was going to work.

"It was your suggestion—I just agreed! Came without question and followed your lead!" She bit down on her tongue fourteen words too late. The grin on her dad's face slipped at the rhyme, making Ronnie want to kick herself. Move on quickly. Make him forget. Distract from the rhyme before he's upset.

"You should go check me in." She slung her backpack over her shoulder. "I bet there's a line. And don't worry about me. I'll be just—" Fine, she almost said. She'd caught herself just in time. "Looking for Jack!"

Ronnie and Jack Park had been neighbors and best friends for almost their entire lives. Their dads were best friends,...

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Verlag
Disney Hyperion
Erscheinungsdatum
2024
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
1368099076
ISBN 13 
9781368099073
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Anzahl der Seiten
342
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
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