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A review by ljrinaldi
Winnie Zeng Unleashes a Legend by Katie Zhao
4.0
I love it when one book I’ve read leads to me understanding what is going on in another one.
In this case, having read “Daughter of the Moon Goddess” has led me to getting what is going on in Winnie Zeng unleashes a legend.
The Mid-Autumn Moon Festival is in honor of Moon Goddess, Chang’e, who was married to the archer Hou Yi.
Winnie decides that her classmates will love to eat mooncakes, which is one of the delicacies of the festival, so she finds her Lao Lao’s (her grandmother) cookbook, and cooks them following those directions. Up until this point, the book appears to be about how hard middle school is when you don’t fit in.
But, upon making the moon cakes, she calls up the spirit of her dead Lao Lao and learns that she is a shaman, and has magical powers she needs to cultivate to fight evil spirits.
What I loved about this book is that it remains a book about how hard it is to fit into middle school, despite all the magic that happens. That she has to balance saving her town with getting ready for her piano recital so she doesn’t disappoint her mother.
It remains totally relatable to readers, while having the magic happening around them.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.
In this case, having read “Daughter of the Moon Goddess” has led me to getting what is going on in Winnie Zeng unleashes a legend.
The Mid-Autumn Moon Festival is in honor of Moon Goddess, Chang’e, who was married to the archer Hou Yi.
Winnie decides that her classmates will love to eat mooncakes, which is one of the delicacies of the festival, so she finds her Lao Lao’s (her grandmother) cookbook, and cooks them following those directions. Up until this point, the book appears to be about how hard middle school is when you don’t fit in.
But, upon making the moon cakes, she calls up the spirit of her dead Lao Lao and learns that she is a shaman, and has magical powers she needs to cultivate to fight evil spirits.
What I loved about this book is that it remains a book about how hard it is to fit into middle school, despite all the magic that happens. That she has to balance saving her town with getting ready for her piano recital so she doesn’t disappoint her mother.
It remains totally relatable to readers, while having the magic happening around them.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.