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Besides the fact that it is seriously funny, one of the things I like best about Cherry Cheva’s She’s So Money is that it’s about a girl who just happens to be Asian-American. Maya is a high school senior, a waitress at her family’s restaurant, a tutor, the co-mastermind of a cheating ring, and, oh yeah, Thai-American. It’s part of Maya’s identity, not the defining characteristic of her or the story. Race and ethnicity are almost never mentioned specifically (the only time I recall it discussed explicitly is the brief cell phone conversation between Maya and her mother after Maya lies about being in the library after school—”She says there are no Asians in the library right now.” “There are always Asians in a school library; that’s where most of us live.”) and racism is not an issue. I was curious as to how this came about, so thanks to Cherry Cheva for guest blogging and answering my question.

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WHAT’S UP PARTY PEOPLE!!!!!!!

I had no idea how to start this off so I just randomly decided to do it that way. Thanks to Trisha and The YA YA YAs for inviting me to guest blog! They wanted to know how and why, in my recently-released novel “She’s So Money,” I wrote about an Asian character without making a big deal about ethnicity. And the answer is: uh, it just happened.

Okay, that’s a little glib, but seriously, that’s pretty much the best way to describe how I went about tackling (or not tackling) the race issue: it never occurred to me to make a big deal of the main character being Thai, because the book wasn’t about that—it wasn’t a race story, it was an opposites-attract story, an “I love you/I hate you” story, a story about two people bitching at each other all the time even though you just know they totally want to make out. Basically, you could’ve taken the story and switched the races all around, and it would’ve shaken out almost exactly the same way. Do I think racism and racial stereotypes are important topics worthy of being written about? Absolutely. Was “She’s So Money” the place to do it? Not so much. Maya’s race, in the context of the story, is a small thing next to the very huge fact that she’s got to make a whole bunch of money fast. That’s her pressing problem, not the fact that she’s Asian. Hell, I’m the only Asian chick in the writers’ room at “Family Guy” but that’s not the problem there, either—the problem is trying to come up with new jokes every day, or a story that hasn’t already been done to death, or a less offensive but equally funny alternative when the Fox standards department inevitably shoots something down. “She’s So Money” just wasn’t meant to be about problems stemming from ethnicity, just like it wasn’t about Cheez Whiz or carnivorous plants or aliens who really like hats, so none of those topics got hit up very hard (or at all, in the case of the last three, if I’m remembering correctly).

Now, I guess I could have written a book with a huge emphasis on race and addressed the topic in a serious manner instead of the throwaway jokey manner that I did it in, but first of all, yeesh, what a downer (there’s a reason I’m a comedy writer) and more importantly, I think it’s possible to use humor to acknowledge that racial differences and stereotypes exist, while at the same time not necessarily hitting anybody over the head with it. We do this all the time on “Family Guy.” Likewise, “She’s So Money” was never meant to be a super-serious textbook read, so if important issues were addressed, they got churned through the joke filter first.

You know what, though? This is pretty much the first time I’ve even thought about all this stuff. Ultimately, I wrote what I wrote because that’s what I felt like writing-there’s no real backstory, it wasn’t brain surgery or rocket science, I was just doing what I felt like doing, in the way that came most naturally to me. So I guess yeah, it really did just happen.

THANKS, PARTY PEOPLE! Can you tell I couldn’t figure out a way to end this either?

High school senior Maya works at her parents’ restaurant, takes a ton of AP classes, and tutors “students who are…not so much like” her, as Principal Davis puts it. Unfortunately for Maya, the student she had been tutoring just got an A on his latest math test and his parents refuse to pay for any more tutoring. So Principal Davis assigns Maya to another student. Camden King. Ew.

Camden King is rich, hot, popular, lazy, and generally content to coast along on these traits alone. During his second “tutoring” session with Maya, he offers her $100 to do his math homework. Good girl that she is, Maya refuses. But when her parents leave her in charge of their restaurant, setting off a chain of events that leads to a $10,000 fine from the Health Department, Maya freaks out.

Maya knows that cheating is wrong, but she fears the alternative is worst. Afraid her family can’t afford the fine and believing that since it’s her fault, she should be responsible for paying it off, Maya thinks doing Camden’s homework is the only choice she has if she wants to pay off the fine without her parents finding out about it. When Camden tells a couple of his friends that he’s paying someone to do his homework and they want in, Maya recruits a couple of her friends to help do all the homework, and the whole thing turns into a cheating ring.

It’s only February, but Cherry Cheva’s She’s So Money gets my vote for funniest book of the year. Who knew a book about 1) a smart good girl and 2) cheating could be so hilarious? (Although—and I think this should be totally obvious, but I’m going to say it anyway—if you don’t think cheating should ever a laughing matter, you should probably skip this book.) While the book is seriously funny, it never devolves into slapstick or being funny just for the sake of being funny. The humor gives us insight to the characters, and it’s the kind of sarcastic and, okay, rather sitcomish funny repartee you always wished you were capable of coming up with in your own life.

“Nice butt,” Camden said from behind me. I quickly sat up. “Too bad your personality doesn’t match it,” he added.

“And too bad your brains don’t match your dad’s bank account,” I shot back. “If they did, we wouldn’t be here.”

Camden stared at me for a moment, opening his mouth and then closing it again before breaking into a grin. “Wow,” he finally said as he got out a mechanical pencil and started clicking it noisily. “You’re an interesting one. Most girls are so stunned by this whole business”—he waved the pencil at himself—”that they can’t even attempt to be bitchy.”

“Well, I’m not and I can,” I said.

“I don’t know if I like you or hate you.”

“Hate me. It’ll make us even,” I said. “Now shut up and open your math book.”

And do you know how hard it was to pick just one part to quote? (Okay, two, with the line from Principal Davis.) Again, this is one funny book. But… She’s So Money is also one of those books that I really enjoyed as I read it but did not quite hold up upon further reflection. Don’t get me wrong, I still like the book a lot and, obviously, think it’s an absolute riot, but I somehow didn’t love it *after* finishing it the way I loved reading it. If that makes sense. Still, I am definitely looking forward to more books by Cherry Cheva, and I’m sure teens will, too, once they’ve read She’s So Money.

Read an interview with Cherry Cheva at the HarperTeen site. Also reviewed by Reader Rabbit and The Story Siren.