Welcome to Litsy!

Maizy and her mom find themselves in Last Chance, Minnesota, to help take care of grandfather and to help with the family business, the Golden Palace restaurant. When Maizy asks about her ancestors, we are taken into a second timeline to discover the family‘ past. Delightful MG novel.

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I listened to the audio book and found the narrator a little distracting. I'm just not an audio book person, but I'm trying. The book was great. It describes the past and current Asian American experience with a dual timeline. The story covers family experience, responsibility, perseverance, grief, and loss while maintaining light, humor, and hope. If you liked Front Desk, you'll live this book too.

Maisy is smart, strong, and at times, salty. Her grandfather may be ill but he manages to teach her important lessons for life as he teaches her their family history and poker. This was a cute book.

Maizy is a wonderful kid and I loved spending time with her & her family in Last Chance, Minnesota. I appreciated so much about this middle grade novel: The story-within-a-story about Maizy‘s great-great-grandfather Lucky, the way Maizy & her grandfather grow close through stories and poker games, how people care for one another and learn about each other. This was my January 2023 #bookspin pick, and a fantastic first read of the new year.

Here‘s my bookshelf view of my January #BookSpinBINGO picks. Last year, I read 22/24 of my #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin picks. I‘m starting this year with one of the two I didn‘t get to — Maizy Chen (the tagged book)! Also included are titles for the #AuthorAMonth and #Roll100 challenges (5 and 8-10), as well as some #SeriesLove2023 (11 & 12).

What a book! A girl and her mom head home to Last Chance, Minnesota, where her grandparents live and run a Chinese restaurant. She learns how to play poker from her sick grandpa, writes new fortunes for the fortune cookies, and hears the story about her g-g-grandfather‘s journey to the US (effectively lessons on Chinese emigrants‘ history, told as story within story!). Heartfelt and charming, this book needs to be read by more people.