Yee, Lisa. Maizy Chen’s Last Chance. Fiction. Random, 02/2022. 288pp. $16.99. 978-1-9848-3025-8. HIGH ADDITIONAL. GRADES 4-7.
Who knew that leaving fast-paced, diverse L.A. to spend the summer in sleepy Last Chance, Minnesota would result in the most dramatic and revealing summer of 11-year-old Maizy Chen’s life? There’s a lot going on at the Golden Palace Chinese restaurant her family has run for over 100 years, but it’s her Opa’s stories about her ancestor Lucky, why he fled San Francisco, what battles he faced, and whom he helped rescue that fire Maizy’s imagination and connect her to the racist vandalism targeting her family in today’s Last Chance. Lots of warm and complex details enliven a story about a family that had grown apart, being forced to push past all the unsaid things in order to discover a shared history that brings them together. This book has California-specific content.
