THE QUAIL CLUB

In this sequel to The Gold-Threaded Dress (2002), Oy, called Olivia by her American friends, wants to perform the Thai dances she loves in the fifth-grade talent show. Liliandra, however, the boss of the girls’ Quail Club, wants Oy to do American-style dancing with her. Many Thai customs—the Buddha in the house, Songkran, the Thai new year—are delicately interspersed in what is essentially a rather pedestrian story. Liliandra is bossy and rude and has parents who are often absent. Oy wants to be in the club where five girls are watching baby quail hatch from eggs (the girls are Spanish and Finnish and more American than Oy feels she is), but she is cast out by Liliandra for choosing the Thai dance over hers. Oy introduces Liliandra to the Songkran celebration and invites her to learn a Thai dance from her own teacher in an artificial dénouement that finds both girls performing in the talent show. Middle-grade girls might find some interest in this classic school dilemma, enriched by the cross-cultural notes. (Fiction. 8-11)