Grace Lin is one of those children's lit authors where when I find a book of hers, it immediately goes to the TBR list.

This is such a sweet, fairly uncomplicated book.  It's a  straight-forward semi autobiographical retelling of the authors middle school years.  It's very wholesome, no one dies, there is some mild bullying, but it's just quaint.

I really enjoyed the context Grace Lin's afterword provided.  She wanted to write a book like the charming chapter books she read as a child that she could see herself in.  I would have loved this book when I was the age of the protagonist.  

As an aside, representation matters so much and I cannot think of another book I've read where the characters are specifically Taiwanese.  I think that's neat!