Morning Sun in Wuhan

This was assigned reading in my Social Justice in Youth Literature course—but honestly if I had seen this book on the shelves of the bookstore or library I would have been drawn to it. The cover is so beautiful!

Morning Sun in Wuhan by Ying Chang Compestine is set in the early days of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Wuhan, China. It starts in January 2020.

Our main character, Mei, is a young girl (I would guess 8th grade) who loves cooking—it makes her feel close to her mom after her death (prior to, and unrelated to, the outbreak of COVID) and she even loves playing a videogame that simulates cooking. This book will make your mouth water with the description of different meals—and don’t worry! There are recipes throughout that you can actually try for yourself!

When Wuhan starts to shut down and Mei hardly sees her father, who is a doctor on the frontlines, she is determined to find a way to help her community in anyway she can.

Is it weird to feel a little nostalgia for the early pandemic days? Maybe. But the mention of makeshift masks (bra cups, underwear, fruit rinds, trash bags, you name it!) did make me smile and chuckle to myself a little bit.

This is definitely a middle grade novel—but I think it’s valuable for teens and adults to read, too. It’s an easy read, and it’s not terribly long.

I love this book so much. It reminds you that the people of Wuhan are deserving of compassion and empathy—it was devastating for their communities just like it was for ours.

There are moments in the story were we witness older family members being removed from apartments and homes on stretchers—sometimes completed covered, which tells us they had passed. These are sobering moments. We see the hysteria in the neighbors of trying to decide what to do when someone falls ill. And on a few occasions, we see people in hazmat suits come and board up buildings—forcing 14-day quarantines by literally baring the doors.

Terrifying.

But in the midst of this, Mei is going to the community kitchen to assemble meals for people who are too old, too young, or too weak to cook for themselves. She’s caring for her community, and we see many others doing the same.

Heart warming.

It’s a 10/10 for me.