The Phoenix Pencil Company

The Phoenix Pencil Company ~ Allison King

Monica Tsai is home for the summer following her first year of college. She was raised by her grandparents, Yun and Torou, and her grandma is having health issues (she celebrates her 90th birthday near the beginning of the book – with a feast from Arby’s, her favorite). Monica loves her grandparents dearly, and worries about losing them, and about whether her grandpa can take care of her grandma as she loses her memory. Grandma Yun tells her a bit about her life in Shanghai under Japanese occupation, and of her relationship with her cousin, Meng. Yun and Meng worked together at the family business, the Phoenix Pencil Company.

The women in Monica’s family have an amazing ability – they can ‘reforge’ a used pencil. By forcing the heart of the pencil into their arm, they can then transmit all of the words (or pictures) that were written/drawn using that pencil, and they experience what the person was experiencing as well. Yun and Meng were forced to use this skill to spy during the war, which they were willing to do because they believe in the cause. After the war ends, when the Communists take over mainland China, their work becomes more complicated.

Now Meng and Yun have lost touch with each other, and Monica is working to reconnect them via a program she is working on for one of her college professors, a program that scours the internet for private journals and tries to connect the writers.

The Phoenix Pencil Company is written in alternating chapters – Yun’s letters to Meng, and Monica’s journal. It confronts issues of privacy in our modern world, and how technology and social media can be used against us. More than that, though, it is a love letter to the relationship between Monica and her beloved grandparents. I loved this book, I loved Yun and Monica and Torou. Highly recommended.