Read This Book…

Maizy Chen and her mom live in L.A. and Maizy has never visited her grandparents, who live in Last Chance, MN where they run the Golden Palace, a Chinese restaurant that’s been operating for generations. But now Maizy’s grandfather is sick, and so they head to Minnesota one summer until he gets better. There, Maizy gets a first hand look at where her mom grew up (and a few hints about why she never returned), and she meets the townspeople of eclectic Last Chance. But when it becomes clear her grandfather isn’t getting better anytime soon, they extend their visit and Maizy spends her days in her family’s restaurant and listening to her grandparents’ stories of the past, learning all of the Golden Palace’s secrets and about her own family’s incredible legacy.

One warning going into this book: Don’t read on an empty stomach! There are so many delicious descriptions of food, Chinese and German in particular, that I found myself craving some of the same dishes that Maizy eats, but I fear none of my local options could hold a candle to the Golden Palace. But that’s just the beginning of the delightful descriptions that await. Yee does a great job of bringing the entire town of Last Chance to life, and populating it with interesting characters that feel believable and real. While this Midwestern town is filtered through Maizy’s eyes and feels a bit too cute at first (there’s a Ben Franklin with a soda counter, for heaven’s sake), Yee slowly pulls back the layers to reveal a community that may have good intentions and good people, but isn’t always as accepting or as progressive as they’d like to believe themselves — which honestly tracks with my experiences of small Midwestern towns. While there is little Maizy can do to challenge the status quo on her own, she learns to stand up for herself and her family, which is important.

Some of my favorite parts of the book were when Maizy’s grandfather would tell her stories about his grandfather, Lucky Chen, who first came to the U.S. from China and how he founded the Golden Palace. Hearing the history of this family was a great way for readers to learn about the complicated history the U.S. has with Chinese immigrants and their own Chinese American citizens, and there were things that I even learned from this book! Overall, this is an excellent book with a funny, warm contemporary voice and so many great teaching moments packed in, but in a way that feels informative and entertaining and not didactic. Definitely pick it up for yourself or the kiddo in your life!