A lyrical coming-of-age fantasy inspired by Chinese folklore, for fans of Kelly Barnhill’s The Girl Who Drank the Moon and Annet Schaap’s Lampie and the Children of the Sea, centered on a young girl who is thrust into adventure when she crosses paths with a young emperor on the run from murderous traitors, and in search of the power of the mythical Dragon’s Pulse.

SONG OF THE WIND
by Ying Ping Low
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, July 2026
(via Park & Fine Literary and Media)

The Village has no name, hidden from outsiders for as long as anyone can remember–until today. Kaixuan, a 12-year-old emperor on the run from murderous traitors, has stumbled into the Village while seeking the fabled power of the Dragon’s Pulse, the key to vanquishing his enemies. Free-spirited Mengyao, a village orphan on the same cusp of adolescence, only wants to hold onto her belief in magic and become a divine healer to her people.

As the words of an old legend bring their fates together, sparking the hope of restoring rightful rule to the kingdom, the two set out in search of the Dragon’s Pulse. With help from unexpected quarters—a jade hare, a kitchen god, a moon goddess, and a spell woven from a handful of promises—they must reach their destination before they turn 13 and lose faith in the Dragon’s Pulse and its magic entirely…and before the enemies at their tail capture them, or worse.

An ode to the power of storytelling, suspenseful with the universal ticking clock of childhood’s end, SONG feels like a new classic in the making, spun together with a remarkable author’s magical touch.

Ying Ping Low lives in Singapore and has had several middle-grade novels published there: Prophecy of the Underworld with Penguin Random House Southeast Asia; and the Mount Emily quartet with Epigram Books. Her books have won the Singapore Book Awards, and been shortlisted for the Hedwig Anuar Children’s Book Award, and a short story won second prize in The British Fantasy Society’s Short Story Competition 2018. She holds degrees in English Literature from the University of Leeds and the University of Warwick and worked in education prior to becoming a writer. SONG OF THE WIND will be her first novel published into the US market.