I Am Reading: Nate Yu's Blast from the Past by Maisie Chan
Nate Yu's Blast from the Past by Maisie Chan 👉
| Publisher: | Picadilly Press |
|---|---|
| Publish date: | 12th June 2025 |
Nate Yu Riley just wants to fit in. He's not interested in the 'Chinese heritage' stuff his adoptive parents encourage him to do, and the closest he wants to get to Chinese culture is prawn crackers from the takeaway. But then he finds an old WW1 artillery shell, decorated with a Chinese dragon – and inhabited by a Chinese ghost who claims to be his ancestor…
Soon Nate has a mission, to find out about the ghost's former life and solve a mystery – and gradually he starts to understand how embracing his Chinese culture can help him place himself in the world.
This is a great book, funny and easy to read but with important ideas. Maisie absolutely gets into the head of Nate Yu, the "worst Chinese kid in the world". The ghost's mission and mystery drive the story, and Maisie cleverly drops little pearls of history and Chinese culture throughout, in a very accessible way. It's never heavy, but it's always heartfelt, and I found myself really pulled in to the history of the CLC, the Chinese labourers who came to Britain to help with the war effort but who are largely forgotten today.
The style is quick, light, and fun, with modern pop culture references and jokes, and it's a perfect example of how to talk about serious subjects in an engaging way. Great stuff!
(And, weirdly, I learned a lot about ants… 🐜🐜🐜)