Book Description from Back Cover

Still, Yanyan has excelled at the missionary school and is eager to finish her last year there. Since she was twelve, Yanyan has been fascinated by both Western and traditional Chinese medicine, and she is determned to become a doctor. But, even ten years after the Revolution of 1911, it is unusal for a woman to attend a university, let alone medical school. While most sixteen-year-old girls are planning their weddings, Yanyan has no interest at all in marriage. But that is before she meets Liang Baoshu.

An outstanding scholar and martial arts student, Baoshu is passionate and dangerous and loves a challenge even more than Yanyan does. Life with him would be an adventure. But when Yanyan realizes that being with him means sacrificing her dream of being a doctor, she faces the most difficult decision of her life. And her choice leads to an entirely new adventure an ocean away in America - where Yanyan is the outsider.

Lensey Namioka paints a portrait of courage as Yanyan struggles to define a role for herself in two very different countries on either side of the Pacific, and helps to carve a new path for generations of women after her.

Background on Lensey Namioka

Her middle-grade novels include Yang the Youngest and His Terrible Ear, a Young Reader's Choice Award nominee; Yang the Third and her Impossible Family; Yang the second and Her Secret Admirers; Yang the Eldest and His Odd Jobs; and April and the Dragon Lady, a nominee for the Utah Young Adults' Book Award.

Lensey Namioka lives in Seattle with her family.