Under a Painted Sky

Under a Painted Sky is a young adult historical novel set on the Oregon Trail during the 1849 Gold Rush. It is a debut novel by Stacey Lee, inspired by her own family history as a fourth-generation Chinese American. The novel won several prizes, including an American Library Association award. Her corpus focuses on Chinese culture and Chinese American experiences. Her other works with these themes include Outrun the Moon (2016), The Downstairs Girl (2019), Luck of the Titanic (2021) and Winston Chu vs. the Whimsies (2023).

Lee is an advocate for diversity in children’s and YA fiction, and Under a Painted Sky celebrates the diversity present in US history while honestly exploring the historical facts of the institution of slavery and anti-Chinese prejudice. Told from the first-person perspective of Samantha, the novel raises many significant historical themes that still resonate in contemporary life, such as Negotiating Gender Roles in the 19th-Century American West, Race and Racism in the Westward Expansion, and The Role of Music in Identity.

Content Warning: The novel contains racist language as well as outdated language regarding the institution of slavery. The novel also describes attempted rape, murder, child abuse, suicidal ideation, and anti-gay bias.