Publisher's Synopsis
China through the eyes of eleven-year-old Mei Li-from school, to the market, to home. Mei Li begins seeing her culture through her English teacher's eyes, the American Missy. She finds herself exchanging Chinese ideas with the American and is both amused and shocked by her discoveries. When a classmate dies, she begins searching for eternal life, though everyone she knows tells her that death cannot be avoided. When her American teacher tells her that she has the cure for death, Mei Li begins making her family and friends uncomfortable by questioning what they believe. This in turn causes the adults, who understand that the people are not free to believe all that they want, to grow fearful of and for Mei Li. But Mei Li is unwilling to stop searching for the truth, vowing that someday she will discover how to live forever, like the Chinese symbol: the turtle.
