The Phoenix Pencil Company written by Allison King. I picked this book off the self because it must have something to do with pencils. I enjoy writing and my father and sister use pencils for their artwork. So the book might be interesting, and maybe I could recommend it to one of them.
Ok, so the book is about pencils and a company that makes the pencils. But that is where any connection to real life use of pencils pretty much ends. So if you suspend your attachment to reality and go along with the premise of the novel this is a romantic story of cousins and their jealousy and connection. A story of true love and heartbreak.
Narrated by Monica Tsai , a young woman living in Boston with her grandparents. She is in college and working with her professor coding a new program that connects strangers online. Her grandmother, Yun, whose memory is beginning to fade, has lived through two wars in China and spent her youth working with her mother, aunt and cousin, Meng, in a Pencil Factory in China. But this was not just a pencil factory and the owners had a secret. They had a special gift that allowed them to see what had been written with the pencil, which was called Reforging..
The pencils were hollow. Whatever was written with the pencil would be saved and if it was brought back to Yun and her family, they could reforge it and know everything that has been written with the pencil. When the government finds out about this power they are forced into a life of espionage, revealing people's stories to survive.
Monica meets a woman through her new program who brings Yun a pencil to reforge after so many years. Through this relationship and the memories of Yun we learn the history of and story of Yun and Meng and how they lost touch.
Monica learns about the family secret and reveals a secret of her own. She learns about trust, love and memory. The book also quietly compares how the reforging of pencils and the technology of the computer to save memories and personal information are similar.
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