Reviewed by Me for TeensReadToo.com

If Patricia "Patty" Yi-Phen Ho had just one wish, she knows exactly what it would be. To be white. Full-out, red-white-and-blue, all-American, totally Caucasian white. Not the half-and-half mixture that she is now, with an overbearing Taiwanese mother and a long-gone Caucasian father. Not an Amazon-tall mishmash of ancestries that leave her looking like an overgrown Asian teenager or a really tanned white one. Just plain old, blend-into-the-crowd white.

When her mom drags her to a fortune-teller who gets her information from your bellybutton rather than a crystal ball, Patty knows she's in trouble. The "you're going to have three children" prediction is a little ludicrous, given the fact she can't even get a boyfriend. But what really freaks her out--not to mention sends her mother into a fit of unintelligible Taiwanese--is the fact that, according to bellybutton lady, Patty is destined to end up with a white guy.

For Patty, that works just fine. For her mother, not so good. If her mom had her way, Patty would never get within twenty feet of a white guy, never mind date one. No, her mom wants what she didn't get herself--a marriage to a nice, respectable, rich Taiwanese doctor. Or, if there are no doctors available, a businessman would be acceptable. Never mind what Patty wants, which at this moment is knowing if the hottest guy at school, Mark Scranton, will ever notice her.

Stunned into yet more lectures about life as a poor Taiwanese girl, Patty's mother decides that this summer, instead of lounging around and possibly getting a part-time job, Patty will attend math camp at Stanford. Since her older brother, Abe, is busy "preparing" for his upcoming attendance at Harvard, he's no help to get her out of this bind. So Patty sets off to camp, resigned to hanging out with geeks.

Except math camp turns out to be not as bad as she'd thought. There's some really good-looking guys there, guys with brains. Like Stu, who blesses her with her first kiss. And might possibly end up breaking her heart. For Patty, this summer could end up teaching her a whole lot more than math. Things like what it's like to really be American, and learning to love who you are. Because there are guys out there who can love a hapa girl for who she is--if she'll just learn to love herself first.

NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH is a great read for anyone who has ever had trouble discovering their identity, or for someone looking to find out how it feels to be different. A real winner! ( )

Awesome voice, incredible characters, math geeks ftw!

"While ever other freshman is at the Spring Fling tonight, I have a date with an old lady whose thumb is feeling up my belly button."

That is because Patty Ho's mother has taken her to a Belly-Button Grandmother, a woman who can read the future by feeling the belly-button. When the lady predicts that Patty (who is half-Asian, half-white) will start dating a white boy, her mother decides it's time to send her to math camp. Patty braces herself for the worst time of her life, but what really happens is more than she bargained for.

I really enjoyed Patty's voice. Her relationship with her mother is very believable and relatable. I liked Patty as a character, and it was fun to see her develop over the course of a summer. I recommend it highly. ( )

Patty Ho, a half white, half Taiwanese teenager is confused.Also, I admire that she didn't make Patty's story merely about finding her identity in terms of race but also in terms of her individual self. As with most books, there are a few lapses, mostly parts that feel rushed or genuine, but the rest of the book is too good to really complain too much about it.

Twitter review @book_kungfu (http://twitter.com/book_kungfu):
Hapa girl straddles the line between banana and egg. Who is she on the inside? -- Kung Fu moment: Asian Mafia soul sisters get together. ( )