Mia’s parents have struggled to find work in America ever since they got
off the plane from China. When they find a job as motel managers, it
seems like an amazing stroke of luck: they can live in the motel
rent-free and make good money if they can bring in enough customers. Mia
is excited (though also a little scared) to help watch the front desk
while her parents clean the rooms. But when the motel owner proves to be
stingy and racist, Mia tries to come up with a better solution for her
family. She helps some friends along the way, but will her struggles to
better her own situation pay off?
This delightful middle-grade
book is based in part on the author’s own childhood experiences. She
provides a helpful author’s note at the end which explains some of the
challenges Chinese immigrants faced in the early 1990s, the setting for
this book. Some of the fictional events come together too smoothly to be
entirely believable, but I think that young readers will enjoy this
story and empathize with Mia’s big feelings and even bigger plans.
(Reviewed from a copy borrowed through my library system.)
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