The Fold

From master storyteller and Printz Award–winning author An Na comes a thoughtful novel about American beauty standards through the eyes of a Korean-American teenager who must decide how far she’s willing to go to be seen as beautiful.

On the last day of her junior year, Joyce Park finally musters up the courage to ask her crush to sign her yearbook, but he can’t remember her name. Joyce questions whether she’ll ever be pretty or special enough to stand out, especially when her older sister, Helen, outshines her in every way. When Joyce’s plastic-surgery-crazed aunt wins the lottery and decides to help everyone in the family improve their looks, Joyce is offered the chance to have eyelid surgery to give her monolids a fold. Joyce is certain that this surgery could change her life, then she’ll look more like the typical white American beauty—the kind of girl her crush dates. But Joyce hates pain. Any pain. And while her best friend can’t believe she would give up the opportunity to change her looks, Joyce’s sister can’t believe she would even consider the surgery. Is fitting in worth going under the knife for?