Honorable Mention, 2021 Grateful American Book Prize NCSS/CBC Notable Social Studies Trade Book Bank Street College of Education Best Book of the Year Finalist, 2022 Connecticut Book Awards

Set in the late 1800s, here is the story of Ning, a Chinese American girl who struggles to find her place in the world when she is forced to leave her home in Shanghai to go live in America with a father she barely knows. This middle-grade historical novel is based on the family history of award-winning author Michaela MacColl.

Twelve-year-old Ning doesn’t know where she belongs. The daughter of a Chinese woman and American man, Ning doesn’t fit in in 1870s Shanghai, where her American features and unbound feet make her stand out. When she receives news that her father will be visiting from America, Ning excitedly hopes that her parents will become a family. Instead, she learns that her father is taking her back with him to America. Ning wonders if being American will finally give her a sense of belonging, but when she arrives, she discovers that living in America isn’t perfect either. In this coming-of-age novel based on the life of author Michaela MacColl’s great-great-great-grandmother, a young girl learns to accept both sides of her heritage and find a new identity for herself.

The View from Pagoda Hill is incredible and beautifully crafted. The characters, both in Shanghai and America, are wonderfully drawn; they come alive. You have to love Neenah because Michaela MacColl has given her such a personality. It is a lovely book that brought tears to my eyes. -Patricia Reilly Giff, two-time Newbery Honor award-winning author