A review by bibliobrandie
Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor by Xiran Jay Zhao

4.0

An action paced history romp! This is being compared to Rick Riordan and YuGiOh but it also gave me strong Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure feels (I love the idea of these ancient figures sitting around watching American Idol:P). I learned more about Chinese history and culture than in all my years living. I love that you get the history/backstory as you go through AR prompts/pop ups. I love that you are just thrown into the story and didn't have to read pages and pages of background information. Zhao trusts their readers enough to know they will pick up on what is going on. Zachary Zing is a 12 year old Chinese American whose AR gaming headset gets possessed by the First Emperor of China. Cool! Along with Chinese history, the author weaves current events into the narrative and does not shy away from criticizing the current regime's oppression of ethnic minorities (I am embarrassed to admit that I had never heard of the Uyghurs...I went down a rabbit hole to learn more). This is a bold, funny, smart book with extremely lovable characters, even the complicated historical figures are lovable. I know this is going to be a hit with so many students at my school!