The Legendary Mo Seto - A.Y. Chan - ★★★★.¼

AUTHOR: A.Y. Chan

GENRE: Middle-Grade Fiction

PUBLICATION DATE: June 4, 2024

RATING: 4.25 stars.

In a Nutshell: A power-packed adventurous ride for middle-graders. Loved the characters, the martial arts, and the focus on Chinese culture. An excellent OwnVoices debut. Much recommended!

Plot Preview:

Modesty Seto, aka Mo, is a highly competitive twelve-year-old taekwondo champ who always seeks the gold medal. Her mother isn’t happy with her passion for martial arts, but her dad is her biggest supporter. Lately though, her dad seems to have other priorities, and this hampers Mo’s confidence, as does her losing streak against her archnemesis Dax, who has grown much bigger than her. Oh, why does she have to be so petite?

When Mo hears of a chance to audition for the latest movie of Cody Kwok, her favourite actor and a mind-blowing martial artist, she is willing to do whatever it takes to star in the movie, even if it means going against some explicit instructions. Her plan is aided by a mysterious book, though it soon becomes clear that the book comes with its share of dangers as well.

The story comes to us in Mo’s first person perspective.

Bookish Yays:

👊🏼 Mo’s character, to a great extent, is perfect for a MG work. She is determined, courageous, loyal, and spunky. A good protagonist for a middle-grade work, except for one thing. (This is clarified in the next section.)

👊🏼 Mo’s best friend “Nacho” is also a fabulous character, as are his funky t-shirt slogans. Loved the banter and the mutual support between the two friends.

👊🏼 Mo is of Chinese origin, and this is utilised well in the plot without resorting to typical stereotypes. The information about Chinese handwriting, martial arts, and even the legendary tale of the three sisters is excellently presented. Always love a good OwnVoices work!

👊🏼 Love the focus on Mo’s insecurity about being short. MG adventures are usually filled with protagonists who are tall for their age, so it was a delight to stumble upon a story where the main character is upset about her shortness, does her best to become “taller”, and finally learns to accept her height and see the positives of it.

👊🏼 The storyline is so relatable, despite having so many extraordinary elements. All kids will relate to being die-hard fans of larger-than-life movie stars or wanting to star in a movie. Love how the book highlights the reality behind the cameras.

👊🏼 The story is nicely paced and never slackens. Despite a multitude of subplots, it is easy to keep track of everything and the author brings all arcs neatly to a close by the end.

👊🏼 The plot uses diversity without making it seem forced in. The characters come from varied ethnic backgrounds, but the book never stresses on their cultural heritage, and treats them like humans than as representatives of their roots: the best approach to true inclusivity.

👊🏼 The plot regularly refers to Cody Kwok’s movie titles and provides a brief one-line description about them in brackets. These are hilarious!

👊🏼 It’s great to see martial arts play a central role. Not that I was ever into martial arts, but reading about the various moves and rules was thrilling. The author is a black belt in Taekwondo and also trained in four other martial arts, and her knowledge and experience come out clearly through her words.

👊🏼 A separate yay for having a female protagonist with not just an interest in but also a talent for taekwondo! Go girl power!

👊🏼 The book spans various genres: family, mystery, drama, adventure, action thriller, and even Chinese lore, but it doesn’t feel over the top as the themes are limited to the necessary few. No ‘kitchen sink syndrome.’

👊🏼 A couple of scenes take digs at silly character actions in movies – enjoyed these little add-ons! Avid readers will notice that the same flaws are common in contemporary adult thriller novels as well. I couldn’t help but laugh at the comment about the phone!

👊🏼 Appreciate the book’s message about accepting yourself and your body instead of always striving to be something you are not and cannot be. As they say, great things come in small packages, and Mo is one heck of a small package, though it takes her long to realise this truth.

👊🏼 The cover is stunningly kick-ass! So perfect for the story!

Bookish Nays: (These points might not be ‘nays’ to every reader.)

🏮 As a middle grader, I doubt I wouldn’t have liked anything about this book. But as a parent, I do have some reservations about how Mo constantly goes against her parents’ instructions, even lying, forging, and cheating to get her way. I might have let this go if Mo received some sort of comeuppance for her misdemeanours, but she gets away with everything with barely a harsh word. Of course, kids won’t be bothered by all this, but I feel it sets the wrong example.

🏮 There are many exaggerations in the story. While this is a fairly common scenario in kids’ books, some of the situations are really tough to digest, like adding 5 inches of height by stuffing your shoes and walking/jumping/running/kicking in them without any pain whatsoever – impossible!

🏮 I never like MG books to talk about crushes and tingly feelings and the like. Granted, it is done at a “barely there” level in this book, with words like ‘crush’ or ‘love’ not even mentioned. But the various references to Mo feeling something funny and/or tingly when she begins to see a certain someone with fresh eyes didn’t make me happy. These weren’t needed in the plot and could have been easily left out.

All in all, my reservations are relatively minor. I mostly enjoyed this fun book that flows almost like a movie with its high-octane dialogues and thrilling action scenes. (In fact, it would make a great movie!) At no point does this seem like a debut work. I am not sure if the author intends a sequel to the story, but if she does, I am certainly on board.

Definitely recommended to all middle-graders, as long as they realise that Mo needs to be emulated for all her positive traits but not in her negative tendencies. 😉

My thanks to the author, Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing, Aladdin, and NetGalley for the DRC of “The Legendary Mo Seto”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.