Pat Sherman (Children's Literature)
Drop a bright, slightly awkward eighth-grader into a new school and you have an instant plot for a tween book. Give him a family secret, a crush on a girl, and a sudden interest in Buddhism, and you have Zen and the Art of Faking It. Sen Lee is afraid that being the only Asian kid in his school will make him feel isolated. When his social studies teacher tells him they’re doing a unit on eastern philosophies, however, he morphs into the class guru. Everyone wants to learn from him. Sure, he knows a lot about Buddhism. The problem is, Sen’s wisdom comes from library books, not ancient family traditions, as everyone expects. His dad is a con-artist serving time in prison. His mom works long hours to support him. His parents are not even Chinese; Sen was adopted. All Sen really wants to do is impress Woody (a.k.a. Emily) a mysterious iconoclast who plays guitar and volunteers at the local soup kitchen. So, what can he do except fake it? He fakes it so well Woody falls for him. That is when all his trouble really begins. But is he faking it? Can pretending ever lead to the real thing? Jordan Sonnenblick, author of two previous young adult novels, has a keen ear for teen-speak, and he makes Sen’s voice funny, smart and compelling. He also happens to know quite a bit about Buddhism, and he integrates much of that knowledge into the story. Thus, the book will have extra appeal for would-be Zen masters--or those who merely wish to expand their spiritual horizons. 2007, Scholastic Press, $16.99. Ages 10 to 14.

Sharon Oliver (Children's Literature)
San Lee has entered yet another school and is trying to decide what persona will work best in this new environment. As the only Chinese kid in school, blending in is not an option. After answering one too many questions about Zen in class (he has just had religion studies two schools ago), he accidentally leads his fellow students to believe he is a Zen master. When this accidental assumption captures the attention of his major crush, a girl named Woody, San decides maybe this accident is not so bad after all. He rushes to the library and begins to study Zen in earnest. While attracting the attention of Woody, his antics also attract the attention of her hostile stepbrother, Peter. When things start to spiral out of control, San can no longer keep track of his complicated persona and it blows up in his face. This traditional story genre has been perked up here with non-traditional protagonists who act and sound like real teens. San does not need a convoluted plot to push him through this story, life is complicated enough at that age, as San is happy to tell us. 2007, Scholastic Press, $16.99. Ages 12 to 16.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2007 (Vol. 75, No. 17))
Adolescence is a time when teenagers ask the all-important question, "Who am I?," but for San Lee, an adopted Chinese boy starting eighth grade in a new school, the question has particular urgency. Luckily, Sonnenblick pens this story, so all that soul searching is side-splittingly funny as well. San, suddenly poor due to his swindling father's incarceration, becomes the only Asian child at Harrisonville Middle School. That, combined with the fact that he once did a project on Taoism and Zen Buddhism at another school, causes him to come up with a new persona: Buddha Boy. Having learned the art of the con at his father's knee, San, now a "Zen Man with a Zen Plan," manages to convince almost everyone, most importantly the girl he likes, of his superior spiritual knowledge. The irony is that by allowing the lies to pile up, this faux Zen master becomes like the one person he doesn't want to be. Hilarious and heart-wrenching. 2007, Scholastic, 272p, $16.99. Category: Fiction. Ages 12 to 15. © 2007 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Paula Rohrlick (KLIATT Review, September 2007 (Vol. 41, No. 5))
Be yourself? Hah! San Lee finds himself once again the new kid in town as he starts 8th grade. As the only Chinese student in a small town Pennsylvania school, adopted, poor, with his father in jail, he figures there’s no way of fitting in, so maybe he can stand out. But how? San volunteers answers to questions about Zen in his world history class, because he’d studied it at a previous school. However, his classmates assume it’s because he’s really a Zen master, and soon San finds himself involved in all kinds of new activities--going to the library, volunteering at a soup kitchen, meditating on a rock, coaching a basketball team, and most especially, trying to impress Woody, a folk-singing girl he has a major crush on--while desperately trying to maintain his new identity and new popularity. Meanwhile, San’s father is paying for his dishonest activities, but what will happen when San’s own dishonesty catches up with him? Like Sonnenblick’s Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie and Notes from the Midnight Driver, this is wildly funny. San and his predicament are a delight, and the author manages to make them both feel completely real. The humor will appeal to all kinds of readers, including reluctant readers, and the novel might even make YAs want to read up on Zen themselves. Category: Hardcover Fiction. KLIATT Codes: J*--Exceptional book, recommended for junior high school students. 2007, Scholastic, 272p., $16.99. Ages 12 to 15.

Laura D'Amato (Library Media Connection, January 2008)
In this enjoyable, fast-paced tale, eighth-grader San Lee moves to a new town and suddenly finds himself "Zen Master" of his new middle school. After San's scam-artist father is imprisoned in Texas, San and his adoptive mother settle in Pennsylvania. While San is trying to figure out how he'll fit in at his new school, he mistakenly answers too many questions about Zen during his social studies class. As a result, everyone, including the girl on whom he has a crush, thinks he's someone he's not. San tries to fulfill his role as a master of Zen by doing library research so that he can sound knowledgeable and present a Zen-like facade to his classmates. While San encounters some bumps and hurts a few people he cares about, he ultimately becomes a better person and makes a difference in people's lives. The first-person narrative is sharp and funny, while the characters and their problems are quite plausible. Sonnenblick does a credible job of re-creating life in a middle school with all its inherent struggles, especially those faced by the "new kid." Middle school students in particular will relate to San and his adventures and will appreciate reading this book. Recommended. 2007, Scholastic, 272pp., $16.99 hc. Ages 12 to 16.

Karen Coats (The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, January 2008 (Vol. 61, No. 5).)
After his father’s imprisonment for all sorts of fraud forces San and his mom to move to a new town and start over, San decides to follow his dad’s meretricious lead and reinvent himself. Casting about for options, he lands on Zen master, a choice made convenient by his being the only Asian in his school, and his having studied enough Buddhism in his old school to be able to shine in his new social studies class. His crush, a girl named Woody who is trying desperately to be countercultural in her white-bread Pennsylvania high school, is suitably impressed, but their relationship is complicated by the fact that Zen masters are not supposed to have earthly attachments and desires. This light-hearted situation comedy is peppered with genuine Zen insight despite the fact that the plastic San completely misses the main point of his faith—that truth should be at the center of all things—as well as missing the fact that he is emulating the exact traits that he loathes in his father. Sonnenblick author of (Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie, BCCB 11/05; Notes from the Midnight Driver, BCCB 1/07) continues to hone the comedic narrative voice of a smart guy at the end of his tether becoming more and more desperate. In San’s case, the desperation seems a bit contrived, as his crime is relatively minor—after all, who in high school isn’t trying on new identities and shedding old ones?—and the bigger deal, socially speaking, of having a father in prison, is presented as no big deal at all; this, rather than his precarious persona, is rather incredibly glossed over when all of the dirty laundry is aired. The humor and the romantic comedy will carry most readers past the less credible bits, however, and more than one reader will likely become interested in finding out more about Zen and the art of whatever Review Code: Ad -- Additional book of acceptable quality for collections needing more material in the area. (c) Copyright 2006, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2007, Scholastic, 264p., $16.99. Grades 7-10.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Spring 2008)
Eighth-grader San Lee is happy with his self-proclaimed Zen master persona until the deception undermines his relationship with a girl he likes. Sonnenblick's narrator is funny and articulate, and he makes a persuasive case that maybe the best way to fit in at a new school is to stand out. Comical scenes balance the harsher details of San's family life. Category: Older Fiction. 2007, Scholastic, 264pp, 16.99. Ages 12 to 14. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.

Mary E. Heslin (VOYA, October 2007 (Vol. 30, No. 4))
Fourteen-year-old San, an ethnic Chinese adopted by an Anglo-American couple as an infant, is as culturally American as apple pie, but he reinvents himself as a mysterious Zen Buddhist when "the thing" with his dad gets "ugly," and he and his mom leave Houston for a new life in Pennsylvania. San elects the exotic identity partly to spite his father, who extolled blending in, but also to impress his new classmates, especially a pretty girl clearly attracted to his aesthetic persona. The tension involves San's need to role play and to discover and affirm his real selfhood, which involves working through anger at a father whom San tardily reveals is a con man serving a prison sentence. Despite the novel's essential seriousness, San's quick mind and self-deprecating humor make it a light read. As a Zen devotee, San is forced into some tight spots-forgoing a "huge, juicy charcoal-y" hamburger for "the soggy horror" of a veggie wrap to maintain his Buddhist vegetarian identity, for example. In the end, his efforts pay off. He wins the girl, becomes a school celeb, leads the B basketball team to a Zen-inspired victory, is exposed as a fake, repents, and is enlightened and forgiven, all of which require the reader's repeated suspension of disbelief. More circumstances were contrived in service of plot and message than this reviewer prefers, but there are redeeming laugh-out-loud moments that make the book a worthy purchase for school and public libraries. VOYA CODES: 3Q 4P M J (Readable without serious defects; Broad general YA appeal; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9). 2007, Scholastic, 272p., $16.99. Ages 11 to 15.