Maizy Chen's Last Chance

Maizy Chen was a hard-to-believe 11-year-old protagonist. She was just a little too mature, a little too smart, a little too good at fixing all the problems, a little too kind to everyone who was feeling left out. It sort of felt like she single-handedly fixed all of her family's relationships, repaired her grandpa's closest friendship, kept the family's restaurant in business, discovered everything about her family's ancestry, brought all the Chinese Americans in America together AND she did this all on summer vacation in a place she's never been!

Don't get me wrong; Maizy was awesome! Just not very realistic. The book was entertaining and I loved her grandpa's family history stories. Now I want to go cook some Chinese food . . . or at least eat some.

The Last Mapmaker

I seriously love Christina Soontornvat. The THREE Newberys she has written in the last 3 years have all been absolute gems. In The Last Mapmaker, she created an entirely fresh fantasy world that had little glints of Thailand but was still so unique. I think one of my favorite elements of this story was how effortlessly she incorporated both genders in all professions and personalities. I caught myself on several occasions making assumptions about genders (like assuming the ship captain was male and then being a little surprised she was female) and then loving that she did it without making any deal out of it. 

Here's my quick synopsis:

Characters: Excellent, well-developed, like-able and unlike-able

Plot: Exciting with just the right amount of mystery

Antagonist: Totally believable

Resolution: Too rushed. Everything just happened so fast at the end and so much was hard to believe.

Dragons: Did not disappoint

The Ocean: Terrifying