Front Desk (Scholastic Gold)

"It is a very nice book. Must read for children " - as said by my daughter

A book that cannot be described in words. It is a novel literally fighting against racism and towards equality. I would recommend it for kids and adults both

Middle school to adults everyone should read this book. Such a wholesome book. Easily favourite book of all time. Please read this book.

"You can't win if you don't play." This is the kind of book I would want every school library must have. "It's going to be okay. I'll make friends, and if I don't, I'll borrow books from the library." (Her first thought on attending a new school.) This is the story of a girl whose family moved from China and is having a hard time dealing with the difficult owner of the motel where her parents are given the job of full-time managers. They meet different kinds of people, the good and the bad. The way the story is being written tells that giving up and living like a victim are not the solutions. I loved how hopeful this story made me feel. It feels so good reading about a family struggling their days to survive but living their lives like they would do everything they could to protect themselves and those they care about. It's their never giving up attitude on the ones they love that made all the difference. Unity in diversity indeed. "I would make them a cup of tea if they were having a bad day. And I would get it out of them what happened. Because sometimes terrible things happen, but there's nothing more terrible than not having anybody to tell it to." The multicultural representation is done so well. The culture shock and the circumstances in which the new migrants struggle to survive, the ways they try to adjust to the unfairness and how things really get to be difficult for them are shown in the story in such a way that it's realistic and told quite genuinely. There are so many stories happening in this story! I loved every bit of it. Such a good book. I don't know what I have been reading all this time. "Here we are, strangers from all corners of the world, blown to the Calivista by the winds of life, only to find each other and reemerge as a new family." "Life's short and it's important to celebrate the good stuff when it happens." *Bullying, racist remarks and acts And this one on gender discrimination that still exists: "There used to be a time when I let my cousins walk all over me. They were all boys, and I was the only girl, and in China, girls are kind of like spare tires. It's nice if you have one, but they're not important." You will come across one of the most hateful fictional characters in this book. Mr. Yao. Go to hell. And seriously, mothers stop putting down your daughters. It sucks as it happens more in real. Do read the author's note at the end of the book. You will see why the story is so real. Dear author, you're the best writer as Mia is in the story. I see you in her.

Amazing paper quality & good to read

A nice read for teenagers!

It’s a great book. The story is absolutely brilliant. My daughter who is 10 years old loved it. In fact I too liked it quite a lot. However the paper quality is not good. Given the cost of the book the paper is very cheap. I felt like it was a copy.

Book doesn’t seem to be new, and appears to be a second hand copy.

Interesting story line across this whole series - with very identifiable feelings from the protagonist Mia as she grapples with being an immigrant in USA. Interesting series for middle school kids, especially those grappling with ethnicity.

大変なことがたくさん起こり、途中読み進めるのがつらくもなったが、読後感は清々しい。 とても読みやすい英語なのもよかった。

Mia is a ten-year-old Chinese immigrant. She had immigrated to California from China 2 years earlier with her parents, who were hoping for a better life. Unfortunately, the United States in the 1990s was not exactly welcoming to Chinese immigrants, and many struggled. Mia and her parents were no different. After gaining and losing several jobs and facing homelessness again, Mia's parents take a job managing a motel. Unfortunately, the motel owner - who is Taiwanese, not Chinese, as he is quick to point out - is not only overtly racist, he is also exploitive and seems almost happy to point out to Mia's parents that they could be replaced immediately when they question his actions. But Mia and her parents try to make the best of it. Mia works the front desk when at the motel, quickly learning the ropes and consistently trying to find ways to help the guests and her family. She also becomes friends with the weeklies at the motel - those guests who live at the motel and pay weekly - and they quickly become part of her growing family. At school, though, Mia struggles. She can't tell the other students - most of whom are white - that she lives in a motel. She struggles in English, though she loves writing, and she also has disagreements with her mother who thinks she should focus on math and forget about writing because "she'll never be able to write as well as the white kids" for whom English is their native language. Most of the book is a slice-of-life look at running a hotel and Mia's struggle to integrate with the other students at school. Though it may seem to some that too much goes wrong at the motel in too short a period of time, I can say from experience that this depiction is incredibly realistic. While reading it, I was having flashbacks to my own experience managing a motel and running the front desk. The news Mia and her family get in chapter 55, in particular, hit hard on the feels for me, because my husband and I went through that same situation. We didn't use the same solution that Mia and her family did, and I definitely loved the solution they came up with. Throughout the story were the letters that Mia wrote, each for a different situation. These were an added touch, helping to bring the reader back to the days of the early and mid-90s, before email was ubiquitous and text messaging was still a dream. Her struggle to put word to paper, to make sure she was using the right words and tenses, was an added dimension to the story that I didn't expect but definitely appreciated. The author's note at the end, where she discussed her own experiences was also incredibly moving, and I loved learning that much of the book's scenarios were pulled from her own experiences, while also wanting to give a hug to the child that had to experience that struggle. I had the opportunity to listen to the audiobook, narrated by Sunny Lu, and I highly recommend it. Lu did a wonderful job with the narration, injecting just the right amount of emotion and tension into the performance. I had to force myself to stop listening so I could go to bed; had I not, I would have listened right through to the end and not getting any sleep. While I would have enjoyed the story, work the next day would not have been fun. Lol. So, long review short, I definitely recommend this book. For younger readers, I would recommend a parent read with them, as there are some tough situations that they may need/want to talk about. But overall, this is a story of hope for an immigrant family who is struggling to make a better life for themselves.

This was a fascinating and captivating story from start to finish. Although the book is rated for readers age 9-12, I bought this for my 8 year old granddaughter. After skimming the first chapter and a half, I wasn't certain this is a book written for children. Anyway, our library had an audio version available, so I borrowed it and started listening... and ended up spending the next 7 hours listening to the entire book. In my opinion, the writer, Kelly Yang, has that special knack for story telling that's akin to Nicholas Sparks. I mention this because many published authors abound who don't have as great a story telling ability that matches their expert writing ability; and there IS this difference. I can whole-heartedly recommend this book to readers of all ages. My granddaughter is getting the book for Christmas.

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