Lunar New Year: The Lunar New Year, or Chinese New Year, is just about the most important (not to mention longest) celebration in Chinese and other Asian cultures. It starts on the first day of the first lunar month and continues for fifteen days. During that time, everyone wears red and eats lots of traditional food, like dumplings, Chinese cabbage, and fish. It’s also important to say nice things to relatives, friends, the weird barefoot uncle who’s always sleeping through family gatherings, and everyone else who will stand still long enough to listen.
Huā Guǒ Shān: The Mountain of Flowers and Fruit, or Huā Guǒ Shān, is the peaceful place where the Monkey King reigns over his fellow monkeys with plenty of—you guessed it—flowers and fruit. The Water Curtain Cave beyond the waterfall is where the monkeys live.
Ruyi Jingu Bang: The Ruyi Jingu Bang, or Gold-Banded Cudgel, is the weapon of the Monkey King. It was originally a pillar of the Dragon King of the East’s palace, but the Monkey King stole it. He can make the Ruyi Jingu Bang grow or shrink to any size. When he’s not using it to slay demons, the Monkey King tucks it into his ear for safekeeping from the demons who are always trying to swipe it. Oh, and the Ruyi Jingu Bang weighs 17,550 pounds, so I wouldn’t recommend trying to steal it anyway.
Shī: Shī is a form of classical Chinese poetry. It doesn’t have to rhyme, but don’t tell Erlang Shen, because we like giving him a hard time.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I consider myself extremely lucky to type “The End” on a second middle grade fantasy adventure novel with a Chinese American cast. Getting to publish Asian American titles like The Fallen Hero is an honor that young Katie couldn’t have imagined in her wildest dreams. As with The Dragon Warrior, writing the sequel, which you hold in your hands, was a massive journey that I couldn’t have completed without the help of many wonderful folks along the way.
To my superstar agent, Penny Moore: thank you, as always, for passionately advocating for us #ownvoices authors, for seeing the heart of my diaspora stories, for finding the best homes for my books. Words can’t express how grateful I am that we’re on this journey together.
To my incredible editors, Sarah Shumway Liu and Hali Baumstein: Hali, thank you for championing my projects and editing them with such wisdom and love; I will never forget that you were the first editor to take a chance on this Chinese American author telling stories from her heritage. Sarah, thank you for enthusiastically picking up The Fallen Hero and my other works where Hali left off; your smart editorial vision has made the transition seamless, and I thank you for your tireless work in helping my stories shine.
To my hardworking publishing team at Bloomsbury: Alexa Higbee, Alona Fryman, Beth Eller, Claire Stetzer, Cindy Loh, Danielle Ceccolini, Diane Aronson, Donna Mark, Erica Barmash, Erica Loberg, Faye Bi, Jasmine Miranda, Lily Yengle, Melissa Kavonic, and Nicholas Church: thank you so, so much for shaping this book into what it is today, and for being endlessly enthusiastic about the Dragon Warrior series. Without you all, none of this would be possible.
To my talented illustrator, Vivienne To: thank you for the beautiful cover on The Fallen Hero, which is the perfect companion to the equally stunning The Dragon Warrior cover art. Your artwork makes my Chinese diaspora heart swell a million sizes.
To the marginalized bloggers in the bookish community, particularly Caffeine Book Tours, run by Shealea I: your support for my as well as other marginalized authors’ stories means the world. Thank you so much for always championing authors of color and helping our books reach the readers who need them most. I am forever grateful to you all.
And finally, to my family and friends (you know who you are!): thank you for being by my side through the many ups and downs of my publishing journey. Thank you for keeping me grounded, for inspiring me, and for believing in the voice of this Chinese American writer. Please bear with me for a while longer, as I have many, many more stories that I hope to tell!
BLOOMSBURY CHILDREN’S BOOKS
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First published in the United States of America in October 2020 by Bloomsbury Children’s Books
Text copyright © 2020 by Katie Zhao
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Zhao, Katie, author.
Title: The fallen hero / by Katie Zhao.
Description: New York: Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2020. | Series: The dragon warrior; book 2
Summary: Determined to prevent the war her brother, Alex, is provoking, twelve-year-old Faryn Liu and her half-dragon friend, Ren, seek help from the New Order, warriors based in Manhattan’s Chinatown, and from the Monkey King.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020007744 (print) | LCCN 2020007745 (e-book)
ISBN 978-1-5476-0197-4 (hardcover) | ISBN 978-1-5476-0198-1 (e-book)
Subjects: CYAC: Adventure and adventurers—Fiction. | Demonology—Fiction. | Dragons—Fiction. | Gods, Chinese—Fiction. | Racially mixed people—Fiction. | Chinatown (New York, N.Y.)—Fiction. | New York (N.Y.)—Fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.1.Z513 Fal 2020 (print) | LCC PZ7.1.Z513 (e-book) | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020007744
LC e-book record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020007745
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