Publisher Description
Winner of the Asian / Pacific American Award for Children's Literature! * "Many readers will recognize themselves or their neighbors in these pages." --Kirkus Reviews, starred review Mia Tang has a lot of secrets. Number 1: She lives in a motel, not a big house. Every day, while her immigrant parents clean the rooms, ten-year-old Mia manages the front desk of the Calivista Motel and tends to its guests. Number 2: Her parents hide immigrants. And if the mean motel owner, Mr. Yao, finds out they've been letting them stay in the empty rooms for free, the Tangs will be doomed. Number 3: She wants to be a writer. But how can she when her mom thinks she should stick to math because English is not her first language? It will take all of Mia's courage, kindness, and hard work to get through this year. Will she be able to hold on to her job, help the immigrants and guests, escape Mr. Yao, and go for her dreams?
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About Kelly Yang
Kelly Yang is the award–winning author of children’s fiction, young adult fiction, and young adult romance. Front Desk won the 2019 Asian Pacific American Award for Children’s Literature and the Parents’ Choice Gold Medal, was the 2019 Global Read Aloud choice, and has earned numerous other honors, including being named a best book of the year by Amazon, the Washington Post, Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, and NPR. She immigrated to America when she was six years old and grew up in Southern California, where she overcame poverty to go to college at the age of thirteen and law school at the age of seventeen. She is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and Harvard Law School. After law school, she gave up law to pursue her passion of writing and teaching children writing. She is the founder of The Kelly Yang Project, a leading writing and debating program for kids in Asia. As a writing teacher for thirteen years, she helped thousands of children find their voice and become better writers and more powerful speakers. She is the Honorary Chair of the American Library Association for National Library Week. Learn more at KellyYang.com.