Acquired Book By: I started to notice I was receiving quite a few enquiries on my blog the last few months – in respect, to authors reaching out to me directly about reviewing their novels and one publicity firm I hadn’t worked with in the past as well. Ms Chan was the first author I responded back positively towards because of the note she attached to her query and how much the story itself resonated with me as a reader. I appreciate writers and/or publicists who take the time to look over my blog and know if their story and/or characters will be a good fit for me as a reader. I knew from what she shared with me; this particular story would be right up my street so to speak.
I received a complimentary copy of “The Legendary Mo Seto” direct from the author A.Y. Chan in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Why this particular story impressed me and why I wanted to read it:
I have had a long-held fascination and interest in Martial Arts – from the days wherein I practiced and trained in Tai Chi Chaun to the hours I’ve spent watching television series and/or movies which had a focus on Martial Arts, too. It isn’t often I find a writer who will put those elements into their stories or a grounding presence of Martial Arts as an important part of their character(s) lives, too. From that aspect of the novel, I was fully hooked and invested in curiosity to read the story! I wanted to know more about Mo Seto right away and find out what fuelled her passion for not just the practice of learning Martial Arts but the competitive side of her character as well.
However, there was a hint of a hidden secret history about her family and that out of her own courage to pursue the truth, she would find a lot to be revealled. From that angle of it, I was most intrigued, too. The last time I saw a story cleverly hide a family history secret was when I was watching the first season of Ms. Marvel and it truly captured my imagination. I need to follow-up with that series and see if they produced a second series, but I wasn’t sure if they would as the lead character was showcased in the film The Marvels.
The fact this novel was written for a Middle Grade audience also was well timed for me to read it – as I’ve been wanting to re-focus more on my readerly interests in both MG Lit and YA Lit – especially over the course of Summer. I had this idea to focus on YA Reads over Summer for quite a few years but either the intensity of storms (ie. severe lightning) would kick me offline or life would interfere, and I’d lose the hours to read the stories themselves – something always seemed to distract me from my efforts every Summer, until now. Mostly as our weather patterns are changing and the storms seem to be coming closer to the end of Summer than at the start of it, too.
I also love finding new heroines and heroes to champion in Middle Grade – especially when I find a book for MG Readers which is lovingly written for an MG Audience and isn’t writ too adult or with inclusions which would make it more Upper YA than Middle Grade. That seems to be the case a lot of the times these days in publishing and that is why I love celebrating writers who still keep the innocence and the adventure alive and well for the audience in which they are writing for rather than rushing ahead with more adult themes or content that isn’t always (I feel) suited for that audience. We all have to grow up eventually but sometimes I think we forget that there is something special and beautiful about still allowing kids to have wicked fun with their imaginations with stories that don’t have to make them feel like they need to hasten their own journey into adulthood.
The Legendary Mo Seto
by A.Y. Chan
Source: Direct from Author
Mo Seto, martial arts movie star! Has a nice ring to it doesn’t it? If only there wasn’t a height restriction to audition. But 12-year-old Modesty (Mo) Seto has never let her height get in the way before, not when she became a black belt, or when she fought the meanest boy in her class, and she’s not going to let it stop her this time! Now if only she can figure out a way to grow five inches and fool everyone at the auditions… Join Mo on an adventure (and audition) of a lifetime and find out if powerful things really do come in small packages!
Places to find the book:
ISBN: 9781665937320
Also by this author: The Legendary Mo Seto
on 4th June, 2024
Format: Hardcover Edition
Pages: 320
Published by: Aladdin Books (an imprint of Simon & Schuster)
Follow @SimonTeen (via Instagram)
An abridged book review of “The Legendary Mo Seto”:
I love the voice of Mo. She freely speaks about her insecurities and regularly has these self-talks to herself to encourage her to find her inner courage and the bravery she needs to do what her heart wants but her mind hesitates to realise she can handle. In those moments, you recognise a part of yourself in Mo. Especially in the years of your own life where your confidence in self wasn’t fully realised and when you were still sorting it all out. Your own strength, life in general and how to handle your peers and classmates. Life is muddling at times but especially so whilst growing up – because you’re still understanding the world at large whilst sorting out who you want to be as you grow, too. Mo has a distinctively relatable voice because as she experiences what she’s going through it is something that you can look back and reflect upon through your own memories. The circumstances might be different naturally but who hasn’t felt like Mo? Where you dare yourself to do something that challenges you but you’re not sure you have the ability to accomplish it?
There is a beautiful segue in the opening chapters wherein we get to listen to a story being told by Mo’s mother about the fenghuang which is a mythological bird in Chinese History. It has a long presence in Chinese culture and other Asian countries as well – for those of us in the West, we might generally refer to it as a Phoenix, but I felt after researching it a bit as I read this story that that might be shortchanging the actual origins of the bird itself. The beauty of the story is how Mo’s mother opened up to her daughter and shared a portion of her own living history: about how she researched different Myths and Mythologies as a student and how her travels took her to different areas of China to hear the stories by the people who knew them most. It showcased a different side to the mother and also, perhaps, opened a door in their mother-daughter relationship as I had the feeling Mo was much closer to her father due to how he went out of his way to relate to Mo.
Every girl should have a friend like Nacho in her life – the guy who is as equally bemused by his friend as he is intrigued. Mo challenges Nacho as much as she inspires him. The friendship is a beautiful one as their on the cusp of growing up but their growing together which is what makes the friendship work so wickedly. I love how she can go to Nacho no matter how late at night and he’s always ready to provide assistance or aide and do whatever he can to help Mo. You gather a sense there is a budding connection between them that moves past friendship, too, as they have such a close friendship, I could see in time that they might want to consider something else past it. Their still young yet in the story but sometimes that is how it goes in life – close childhood friends mature into a relationship by the time they reach high school.
When Nacho started to research secret societies and the history of them in China, I was cheering him on from the sidelines. He has Mo’s best interests at heart, and he is not just her cheerleader and best friend – he’s more like her confidante and close advisor. He respects her interests and tries to help her whenever he can – which is why when the film crew needed to meet with her parent or guardian, I had a feeling it was going to be a member of Nacho’s family who would go in lieu of her own! I was not disappointed. There are moments of angst at the set and auditions too – from suspected sabotage of the set and props to the competitive pettiness of some of the other children auditioning. Chan keeps you glued to the pages because of her entertainingly lively style as she writes the story whilst keeping it grounded and rooted in Mo’s journey.
I was very appreciative to see how Chan handled Mo and her nemesis Dax as well. These two were always fierce competitors in their Taekwondo classes and tourneys, to the point where they were never really on friendly terms with each other due to how Dax lacked sportsmanship about it all. He became an integral part of the story – following Mo’s own timeline within the audition process and of course, sharing scenes with her as they both tried to secure the role, they felt would change their lives for the better. It was a classic example of how the people who think you know everything about have more secrets being kept hidden from the world than you could imagine. And, for that I was wicked happy with how Chan slowly revealled more about Dax and in effect, humbled the reader through those revelations lateron in the storyline.
There is an EPIC conclusion to this story, and I loved how Chan opened the door for this to become a trilogy! At least, that is the liberty I took in concluding this particular story. There are three different windows into the past which can interconnect to the future and those particular windows are hidden. It would be brilliant if each installment focused on how to find and protect those windows of knowledge for future generations. On a personal note, it was a wicked riveting adventure start to finish, and I was overjoyed by how much action was inclusive to the ending! At one point you’re not even sure how Mo is going to get through the scenes because of how intensive the action became and how dramatic everything shifted to become a fight to live scenario! My favourite part of the ending, too, was how Mo realised that she had everyone she needed in her life – from family to friends to even the possibility of something more as well.
Part of the joy of reading the story is trying to unearth the mystery behind the words and movements within the book Mo discovers as being part of her father’s family history and legacy. In that way, Chan takes us close to the journey alongside Mo – of rooting out what the symbols represent in English and how as Mo translates the book itself, she’s not just discovering long lost ancestral truths but she’s sorting out how to use her own heritage as a method of understanding a bit of her present, too. Not that she has fully connected the dots on that as we walk alongside her, but I had a feeling that the book would take on more meaning for Mo by the time story ends. It was clever how we get to peer into Mo’s life from different angles of it – from her pursuit of wanting to continue martial arts training despite her mother’s insistence to discontinue it; to her friendship with Nacho and her fortitude of courage to try out for an audition in a movie her mother knows nothing about. Each layer of her life is rife with moments of growing up and growing into herself – of finding her own path and of embracing who she is in the here and now. I felt Chan did a wonderful job writing out the layers of the story whilst entertaining the reader at the same time by how she chooses to give Mo such a lot of depth whilst we took the adventure alongside her.
The Ledendary Mo Seto is a new Middle Grade heroine to celebrate because she reaffirms what we all know to be true of ourselves: our strength is our courage, and our courage is our confidence. We each have something unique to contribute to the world and just by being ourselves we give ourselves the freedom to live daringly fierce!
To read my full ruminations, reactions and commentary on the writing styling of A.Y. Chan,
please read my full review of “The Legendary Mo Seto” which was featured this Summer.
This book review is courtesy of the author:
About A.Y. Chan
A. Y. Chan grew up in Canada’s Greater Toronto Area reading all the middle grade and young adult books she could get her hands on. To this day, those remain her favorite genres. After achieving her black belt in Taekwondo, she explored other martial arts, such as Wing Chun, Hapkido, and Muay Thai. These days, she continues her martial arts training some mornings, writes in the afternoons, takes long walks to muddle out plot points, and falls asleep reading.
Closing Thoughts:
I had originally planned to feature an interview with Ms Chan about Mo Seto and key components of the story which resonated with me the most as a reader. However, after my Mum’s health issues involving high blood pressure with her multiple trips to the ER and one overnight stay in the hospital – I admit, I had forgotten to send over the questions! I did send them to the author but it was less than a week ahead of the tour date today and I did leave a note on the email saying that given Christmas is quite literally ’round the corner, we can reschedule this for the New Year. I mentioned I’d run a different kind of feature instead and as I was considering ideas for today’s showcase, I decided to do something unique which is to re-publish an abridged version of my original book review.
The reason I elected to do this is because I believe so fiercely in the story of Mo Seto and in the writing style of Ms Chan. I want as many people to find out about Mo as possible and hopefully encourage to seek out her story because it is such a wickedly well-written story!
Be sure to return in the New Year of 2025 to enjoy my interview with the author!
{SOURCES: Cover art of “The Legendary Mo Seto”, book synopsis, author biography and photo were provided by the author A.Y. Chan and are used with permission. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. “The Legendary Mo Seto” blog tour banner and The Write Reads badge provided by The Write Reads and is used with permission. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: The Legendary Mo Seto graphic created by Jorie in Canva. Photo Credit: ©jorielovesastory.com and the Comment Box Banner.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2024.
I’m a social reader | I share my readerly life on #bookstagram
I shared this on #bookstagram!
Leave a Reply