Maizy and her mum have driven to Last Chance, Minnesota because Opa (Grandfather) is very unwell. Maizy has never visited her grand parents or seen their Chinese restaurant before. Mum and Oma (Grandma) are not on speaking terms. This is just one of the puzzles Maize has to unravel. She also needs to hear the story of her family going all the way back to the 1850s. Opa tells the story of Lucky - his great great grandfather all the while teaching Maizy how to play poker - the card game and the life game.
"In my family, some times what's not said takes up more space than what is."
"It's not just the cards you're dealt. It's what you do with them that matters most."
"You're not interested in stuff like sailing ships, outlaws and a gold mountain are you?"
"It's funny how one insult can ruin your day or how one compliment can make someone so happy."
Take a close look at the cover - the tiny details here are important to this story - fortune cookies; Grandma (Oma) and Grandpa (Opa); a large brown wooden bear; the Chinese restaurant; and even the LA T shirt worn by Maizy herself. There are 81 chapters in this book - they are all so short the pages just fly by. This book truly is a page turner. I can understand why this was a 2023 Newbery Honour Book.
If you are sharing this book here in Australia I would use this quote as a way to start a discussion about the themes of racism which are explored in this story:
"Does this girl even know how beautiful she is? I wonder what it would be like to be blond and beautiful. Or just blond. Or just beautiful."
I was called for jury duty today and because this is a long process I took along my ipad which has a few Kindle middle grade books. At 9am I settled down to wait and I read over 60% of this book and then when I arrived home (everyone was dismissed - no one was needed for a jury today) I finished off Maizy Chen's Last Chance. Now I need to head out to my local Chinese restaurant and devour some delicious food - this book is filled with tantalising dishes. It was great to see so many people who were sitting in the court holding area today reading books and ebooks.
Here is a video with Colby Sharp talking about this book. He mentions the minor characters and I totally agree. I loved the way Maizy needed to discover each of their back stories and motivations. Take a look at the author page about this book. Here is an in depth interview between Lisa Yee and Roger Sutton (Horn Book). Here is the Kirkus Star review.
This was a perfect balance between a fun setting and characters, and more serious issues and history. Ms Yingling (she also mentions The Parker Inheritance as a related text). Read her review for more plot details.
Maize asks Principal Holmes if she can borrow books from his high school library over the summer months while they stay in Last Chance. Specifically she asks for this book which I have now added to my own enormous to read list:
Companion books to read after Maizy Chen's last chance:
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