Book Review - What Things Mean

THIS ­Scholastic Asian Book Award 2014 winning novel presents a new way of storytelling.
Each chapter starts off with a word like ‘jars’, ­‘pickles’, ‘cut’, etc, ­followed by its ­meaning and how the word is used in various ways.
This is then followed by a story, which is inspired by the word.
The plot revolves around a 14-year-old Filipina named Olive. Raised by a single mother, her aunts and grandparents, she has no clue as to who her real father is.
She finds solace in books and trying new types of food.
But the desire to know who she really is causes friction between her and her mother.
But a clue from her ­grandmother leads her on a journey to find out the truth ­behind her parentage.
The story is simple and relatively short (133 pages) but author Sophia N. Lee manages to capture Olive’s feeling of loneliness despite being surrounded by loving ­relatives.
There is a glossary at the end of the book if you do not understand some of the local Filipino words and references used.