Share this
Glasshouse of Stars
by Shirley Marr
Published by Penguin Random House
ISBN 9781760899547
Available in print and as an audiobook
A most interesting book, written in the context of narration. It looks at the life of young Meixing Lim who arrives in a New Land to a New House with her family. It is all very scary for her as both she and her father barely speak the local language plus her mother is heavily pregnant. She clings to the Old Land as she doesn't know what to expect of the New Land. Something look good but they're not familiar so does this make them scary?
Meixing and her family have inherited the big, new, white shiny house that her mother wants to keep pristine and not allow any burning of incense and other rituals that their aunties expect them to continue doing, much to their horror. Meixing looks to other children with similar backgrounds for comfort and help but they don't really understand.
The story is written in a third person context which we found most interesting and easy to read. It is an incite into what it's like for migrants to arrive in a New Land where everything is so unfamiliar and describes why they may appear to be silent and solitary, one may say introverted or mistaken for being cold.
The author, Shirley Marr is first-generation Chinese-Australian living in Perth who writes young adult and children's fiction. She says she has a Western mind and an Eastern heart after coming to Australia as a 7 year old.
