"The Ventriloquist's Daughter" by Helen Wang follows the life of a young girl named Barbie, whose father is a ventriloquist. As she navigates her childhood with a sense of wonder and frustration, Barbie grapples with the challenges of her father's craft and the unique bond they share. The narrative explores themes of identity, family dynamics, and the struggle for self-expression, all intertwined with the art of ventriloquism. Through Barbie's experiences, the story illuminates her journey toward understanding both her father's world and her own place within it, revealing the complexities of love and creativity. [Generated by language model - please report any problems].

This book is aimed at children at US 7th grade-12th grade.

This book has been graded for interest at 13-18 years.

There are 192 pages in this book.

It is aimed at Young Adult readers. The term Young Adult (YA) is used for books which have the following characteristics: (1) aimed at ages 12-18 years, US grades 7-12, UK school years 8-15, (2) around 50-75k words long, (3) main character is aged 12-18 years, (4) topics include self-reflection, internal conflict vs external, analyzing life and its meaning, (5) point of view is often in the first person, and (6) swearing, violence, romance and sexuality are allowed.

This book was published in 2017 by Balestier Press .

Cao Wenxuan is one of China's most important children's writers and is widely considered the country's most subtle and philosophical, often referred to as China's very own Hans Christian Andersen. He is a professor of Chinese literature at Peking University, and has in turn taught some of China's best young writers. Many of his books have been bestsellers, including Thatched Cottage and Red Gourd, and his work has been translated into French, Russian, Japanese, Korean and English. Cao has won several of China's most prestigious awards for children's literature, including the Song Qingling and Bing Xin prizes, and is current winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award. Helen Wang has a BA Hons in Chinese from SOAS and is currently a Curator of East Asian Money at the British Museum. She has written and edited numerous books and articles and has been translating from Chinese to English for nearly 25 years, including, for children, Jackal and Wolf by SHEN Shixi and Pai Hua Zi and the Clever Girl by Zhang Xinxin. She lives with her family in north London.