Fourteen-year-old Candace Ong is wasting away in wonderland—Eggroll Wonderland, the restaurant where her under-Americanized family toils in San Francisco. She loves rock candy and rock music, jelly beans and jelly shoes—and hangs with her best friend Ruby, whose wild life she envies. Candace wants more than another stifling summer stuck in the kitchen. So when a new opportunity arises, she leaps at the chance—even though it means leaving home to experience a tantalizing, dangerous life far beyond the dim sum ho hum. But the waiting world may be a lot more than one brainiac Chinese Lolita can safely handle. About the Author In the fourth grade, Kim Wong Keltner won a cutthroat spelling bee, which encouraged her aspirations as a writer. Over the years, she honed her ear for dialogue by listening to elderly Chinese women dish dirt over endless games of mahjong. She met her husband at a Chaucer seminar when she stretched out her hand and said, "Come with me if you want to live." They now reside in San Francisco's Sunset District, where all the other Chinese people live.