Front Desk

This book is the winner of the 2019 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature as well as several other awards. It is the somewhat autobiographical story of a 10-year-old Chinese immigrant girl who finds herself living in a hotel with her parents when they land a job managing the hotel. The book is full of surprises, pain, laughter, problem-solving, social issues, and cultural understandings. The main character is 10-year-old Mia who runs the front desk at a hotel. Why? Because her parents were so busy attending to all the other demands to running the hotel, including doing all the laundry. Mia is independent, feisty, smart (but got a C- on a paper she felt proud of), and sensitive to the plight of others. So many details woven into this book, but done in such a vibrant and powerful way. When reading the book I did notice there are a few phrases, just a few, that may be offensive so the teacher may want to address this with students.

About the Author: Kelly Yang immigrated to the United States as a six-year-old with her mother who was an engineer in China and her father who was a physician. As immigrants they really did find themselves managing a hotel and being the victims of discrimination that Kelly writes about in her book. As a child she did not feel she could ever tell her classmates the truth of her life. She did not see herself in the books she read and felt a loneliness that followed her into her adult life. But was she smart. She went to college at the age of 13 and began law school at Harvard when she was 17. However, she longed to be a writer. She graduated from law school but pursued her passion for writing and teaching children to write. Yet until writing Front Desk she kept her personal story of immigration to herself. This is her debut middle school book and she wrote it for her son so he could know her story.  

Pathways Themes: My World & Others, Social Issues & Culture

Reviewed by Krystal Bishop, EdD

Professor of Education

Southern Adventist University