Making Friends with Billy Wong

Eleven-year-old Azalea is sent to care for Grandmother Clark and meets Billy Wong, a Chinese American boy. Billy’s parents operate Lucky Foods grocery store, where the workdays are long and some customers are unfriendly. Azalea also encounters Willis DeLoach and Melinda Bowman after arriving somewhere unlike her Texas hometown. Told in poetry and prose, the novel concerns Azalea’s growing friendship with Billy.