Super cute middle grade read. Would be a great read aloud book for lower elementary classes, or a great silent/individual reading for upper elementary (3-4 grade especially!)

The Unbeatable Lily Hong is a fun story about Lily and her friends saving their community center. They go through different challenges but ultimately figure things out. I think this is a real story for middle grades children and kids of all ages.

Chinese American culture and the sense of community take center stage in this novel but they don't fully define Lily. She is a complex, realistic character. She's a middle school kid trying to be her best self and struggling to please her parents. So while Chinese culture is essential to the plot, there is a universality to the characters that makes this a book that anyone can enjoy.

Lily is a seventh grader who loves making films. However, when she is forced to be part of a Chinese dance group, she finds herself drawn in many directions. It takes her realizing she needs the support of her friends to figure out balance and save her community center.

I found Lily to be unlikeable at first, but she has a lot of growth throughout the book! I like a lot of the messages the book had, although I think the crushes on each other could have been a more minimal storyline. There is one line at the end that makes it seems like Lily thinks Max loves her??? And that was just weird with them being twelve. I do think though the messages about community and friendship outweigh that!

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was such a fun read!! I loved it - Lily, her friends, and her family told a wonderful and heartwarming story about the power of community and relationships. I'm really glad I had the chance to read it early (thank you NetGalley for the advance read). I'm looking forward to recommending this book to my kiddos at the library, particularly those who are looking for Chinese American representation. I'll look forward too to seeing it on our shelves!

I had a lot of fun! I'm trying to read more middle grade in general especially because of GR eliminating that category in their awards this past year.
I'm a sucker for any book that has Chinese language in it of course and most Chinese Americans will know the busy day of school and Chinese school. Lily and her friends are a fun bunch - they feel like pre-teens and have the dreams of pre-teens. It's a book I would have very much loved when I was growing up to see people who had my shared experience in text. It was also cool to see Hui Chinese represented, which I don't often see.
Save the Chinese school/community center is always a fun storyline mixed in with Lily's conflict to balance her school friends and her Chinese school friend Tina.

I really enjoyed this book! The thing I love about middle grade books is that there is always hope. Always optimism. Even when things look bleak. And this one had a lot of it. It also had a lot of humor, wonderful characters, great friendships, a crush or two, and a fun plot to keeps things interesting.

There is also an important theme around community and how something like a community center can really bring people together. The message was subtle but beautifully woven into the story.

Let's talk about Lily Hong. She is incredible. I adored her. She is a filmmaker at heart but puts her all into everything. Lily was hilarious and witty and quick thinking and always up to something. I think we all know kids like Lily and embrace the chaos that surrounds them.

Lily and her friends decide to save the community center where her mom's Chinese school, plus a lot of other clubs and businesses are at. It's wonderful to see how they come together and bring Lily's plan to life.

The representation was also terrific. Lily is Hui, Chinese Muslim, and her identity was such an important piece of this story.

A great story for kids ages 8 and up!

This was so lovely! I need more middle grade in my life, and this absolutely scratched that itch.

I loved that we got to read about a 12-year-old Hui (Chinese Muslim) kid, and Lily was so genuine in her curiosity, passion, envy, and hope. I loved the academic rivalry she had with Max, a classmate whose parents are land developers and want to buy the community center that her parents' Chinese school is based out of.

The "save the family business"/"save the community center!" plot was so precious, familiar, and yet, still felt as if it could stand on its own. Lily's friendships and her fascination with Buffy the Vampire Slayer was so sweet. Her yearning to attend Emerald City Comic Con with her friends was perfectly portrayed! I truly felt like I was read in the first-person POV of a 12-year-old who was trying her best to not disappoint her friends and community center, even though she was being pulled in different directions. I appreciated how conflicted she felt and how she grappled with the guilt she felt over lying, and felt it was true to how a 12-year-old would assess the situation.

I appreciated the subplot of the dance teacher Vivienne with Lily's Auntie Li, which I did not see coming at all. That was a fun little tangent! We stan a bit of queer representation, especially in Chinese American communities!

I would absolutely read from Diana Ma again in the future, and I'll be buying this for the kids in my life who are middle-grade age!

I love this book for so many reasons. I love the friendships and the lessons learned about how to be a good friend. I love the strong ethnic identities of the students, and the conflict that that sometimes includes. I love the cooperation and community ties. I love that none of the characters are perfect - each has their own weaknesses, but those imperfections are not treated as flaws, but as another means to celebrate differences and inclusion. I love that as an American teaching in China, it bridges the cultural divide so beautifully and is something that students in both countries would find interesting and engaging. I love that I could have it in my classroom library in both countries and know that all the students would enjoy reading it and finding different things of interest in it. I especially love that my Chinese students will see themselves in a Western book and will be able to identify with a character they read about in English.

This is very clearly a middle grades book - it's not trying to be anything more or less, and I love that, as well.

I really enjoyed Lily and her friends and family and look forward to future books from the author.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Children's Books, Clarion Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinions.

Even though young adult is no longer my normal, I feel like I'm a little more lenient with middle grade. Lily is a Chinese American living an hour outside of Seattle. Unlike most people with a Chinese background, Lily is Hui Muslim. While I knew a bit about the Uyghurs in Western China, I knew next to nothing about the Hui. I would have liked that to be expanded upon, but perhaps it won't hold young people's attention.

Like any other young person, Lily is a little bit on the dramatic side. The only other Chinese American at school, Max, is Lily's self proclaimed rival. Obviously, a little more is happening under the surface, but Lily doesn't realize until much later.

Lily and her friends are Buffy fans, which won them some points with me. Vampire slaying, forever! They are also part of the acting troupe that puts on plays. As always, there is more drama that is associated with this.

The thing with the most drama of all? The Chinese community center is going to be torn down and turned into fancy offices! Oh no! What to do? Don't worry. They figure it out. Along with some lessons about what gender and so forth is "allowed" to do the lion dance. Don't worry. That went in the direction I wanted it to.

Lily is a really great character who doesn't give up at all costs. She has great friends and an arch nemesis who might actually turn out to be a good friend.
This is a really cute middle grade book, with a great message of not giving up even when things get out of whack.

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

This novel has a fantastic cast, the main character is energetic and as the title points out unbeatable, she slows down for nothing.

Lily is twelve and into making fantasy movies, a huge geeky fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and comic cons. She has amazing and loyal friends and a great plan to succeed in her double life as belonging to her middle-grade school life but also her Chinese community. For a while, she keeps all separated and juggles both areas as distinct problems to solve but there is just so much this energetic pre-teen can do. Her archenemy turns out to be a good listener and friend. Then all her plans crumble but she doesn't quit.

This is an exciting read with a rom-com vibe. I love the twists and misunderstandings that just make us turn the page to see how she is going to tackle the next difficulty. I love a character that is not perfect but gives her best to improve.

This is an author that I will be on the lookout for her next middle-grade project. It reminded me of Turning Red which is one of my favorite animations.

Thank you, publisher and Netgalley for this e-ARC.