'The Fake-Chicken Kung Fu Fighting Blues' by Aaron Lam is a middle grade ebook about moving to a new town and trying to find your way.

When Anthony's family moves him from Chinatown out to a small town in the province, there are a lot of things he misses. He makes new friends when he stands up to a bully. He learns about his town when he makes a video for his housebound grandmother who is wary of her new town. He learns that his new town is not so bad.

I'm not sure what I expected based on the title, but I liked what I read and it would be a fun book to recommend to younger readers.

I received a review copy of this ebook from James Lorimer & Company and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

This story didn't feel entirely genuine to me. While all of the things it addresses are valid and important, it doesn't flow in a natural way with a degree of age appropriate complexity. It's a bunch of separate issues patchworked together into a messy plot, each issue addressed independently and resolved too easily.

This is a sweet book about how to adapt to moving house and town for 7-10 year olds. There is no peril and only slight drama, but it explores a lack of your culture in a small town and moving to a rural setting nicely. It would be more difficult to hand sell in the shop as the Canadian references would be lost and ice hockey isn't popular here...

From the title, you would have no idea what this book is about, other than the narrator has a sense of humor. In fact, this is a fish out of water, middle school book, about a boy of Chinese decent moving to a small town where his family is the only Chinese-Canadians, and this includes his grandmother, who speaks no English.

But, what starts out on a boy trying to fit in, goes to a boy making a film about what is special about his town.

This book is a lot of fun. The illustrations aren’t necessary, but are quirky, like the title, and Anthony is a very likable character, and has a good sense of humor about it all, despite not really liking hockey, which is an obsession in this small town.

Good book, easy quick read, and will be interesting to kids that love hockey and who hate it.


Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.