It's Boba Time for Pearl Li, Nicole Chen (Book Review)

Book Review - It's Boba Time for Pearl Li!

Summary: It’s Boba Time for Pearl Li!

In It’s Boba Time for Pearl Li, Pearl Li loves boba, her amigurumi (crocheted dolls), and Boba Time owned by Auntie (not her biological aunt) Cha who encourages her to keep crocheting. She’s eager to spend the summer crocheting more dolls and hanging out with her two best friends Priya and Cindy. Priya is also artistic, but unlike Pearl, her parents encourage her to cultivate her creativity. Pearl’s parents are tech founders and wish she were more like her big sister, who’s a budding programmer. Cindy, Pearl’s other bestie, is a Hong Kong transplant who’s adjusting to life in America.

Pearl’s summer gets off to a rocky start when she finds out that Boba Time is struggling financially and Auntie Cha is considering selling if she can’t make ends meet. She decides that she will sell her amigurumi creations to raise the money Boba Time needs. But running a business is more complicated than expected — especially when you’re doing it behind your parents’ backs. Can Pearl make it work?

The Good

This was one of those books I couldn’t get into in print and the audiobook saved the day. I absolutely loved listening and I kept inventing things to do around the house to keep it going. Pearl Li was an absolute delight of a protagonist who’s struggling with wanting to please her parents vs enjoy the crafts that bring her so much joy. I think kids like Pearl are so fortunate to know what they love at such an early age — even if it defies what their parents would prefer.

I’m not into needlework or crocheting, but I could feel Pearl’s passion, and I loved it. This is one of the few middle grade books that really digs into what it’s like to run a business — and as a fellow business owner, I was all over that narrative. Pearl starts a shop on Craftsy and learns through trial and error how to market her products, deal with customer dissatisfaction, and even ship products for the first time. Eventually, she tries to get a booth at a craft market and it’s all so fun to see her navigate the ups and downs.

Finally, we get some friendship drama with Pearl and her friends when she becomes fixated on her plan. She also learns that art shouldn’t be done for others, but for oneself first. I loved the resolution with Pearl’s parents, because she does lie about a lot of things as she tries to run this business and some readers may not be 100% okay with that, but I think this is one of the better done lying storylines.

Overall: It’s Boba Time for Pearl Li!

It’s Boba Time for Pearl Li! is a sweet, heartwarming middle grade novel about crafting, entrepreneurship, friendship, and navigating parental expectations. This is an excellent book for showing kids the ins-and-outs of running a successful business, down to marketing, setting pricing, and customer relations. It’s also a great addition to the lineup of books addressing the parental pressure to excel in science/engineering over creative pursuits. This one’s a delightful debut that I totally recommend — I’d choose the audiobook over the print version, too!