Chinese Cinderella: A Tale of Survival in Shanghai

The book starts out in Shanghai China in the year 1942 where we are introduced to Ye Xian, also called Chinese Cinderella or for short CC is the protagonist of the story. She is kind, smart and playful. She lives in China and tells the story through her own eyes. CC is around twelve years old and was thrown out of her home because of an argument with her stepmom, the antagonist of the story. The stepmom is evil, arrogant and self absorbed. Lost in Shanghai with no place to go, CC wants to go to her aunt's apartment, but remembers she is in Nan Tian Island taking care of her godmother. CC then recalls three boys she had seen the other day while downtown with her aunt. They were acrobats and gave her a card with their academy's name. She rushes

The group's mission is to get the crew that landed on Nan tian island safely to China through Japanese controlled waters. To get to China the group has to smuggle the Americans through the woods. CC, her friends and teachers manage to get the Americans to safe hospitals in Shanghai where they are treated. When CC returns back to the academy she is sent home to her dad. At home with her dad, her privacy is not respected and she decides to run away again. As CC joins the other kids at the academy she is informed that one of the American crew that landed in Japan has been taken into Bridge House a Japanese prison. Here three of the crew members are killed. CC develops a plan using wine growing vegetables to help the remaining prisoners escape. In the escape the prisoners climb down the vines and into a truck where they get into German officer uniforms. In the truck the children talk about their religions and how what they believe is different from everyone else. They all agree that no religion is better than the other and that they are all “ We are children of destiny who will unite East and West and change the world. The future belongs to us.”(Yen Mah,