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Front Desk Book Review

5.0 rating
Reviewed by Ashlee Kelsen in Book Review
  • AuthorKelly Yang
  • Publisher Arthur A. Levine Books
  • Published6/25/2019
  • Pages320

Today is the day where I am finally going to review, Front Desk by Kelly Yang! I love this book, and according to Episode 5, My top three favorite books of all time, Front Desk is apart of it! I’m super excited to tell you all about it and why it was apart of my top three favorite books of all time!

Book Review Podcast

The Review

As said before, ten-year-old Mia Tang is an immigrant from China who was moved to the U.S. Mia’s parents have high expectations for this new life they are about to come to, but it doesn’t work out as they excepted.

Her mother trying to work as a waitress, shortly getting fired, and working at the front desk in the Calavista motel with the mean motel owner Mr. Yao is hard on them. Along with trouble at home, Mia has difficulty fitting in at her school and making friends.

Author Praise

Kelly Yang is the author of this telling-of-age story and does the best job at accomplishing it. Wow, it’s a great story and Yang really makes it super emotional and relatable for some kids.

Funny enough, Kelly has had the same experience working at a motel with her immigrant parents. After some digging, I found out that a sequel is coming out soon! The three keys! Isn’t that crazy? If you’re interested, I would hop onto Front Desk and get ready for the new book!

Book Details

  • The book is around 305-320 pages long
  • There are 67 chapters
  • Received Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature
  • Arthur A. Levine Book
  • The author of the book is the award-winning, Kelly Yang

What’s Your Rating?

If I had to rate this book, it would be a five out of five! As I’ve been mentioning, this is an amazing book with many topics that are good for younger reading to understand and have an opinion on. Besides that, it’s a great book and I totally recommend it for kids that are my age. It’s a thick book, so it’ll last you a while!

Would I Recommend?

For kids like me? Of course! When I first read this, I was in love with the plot and the trouble all of the characters go through in this book. It seems so difficult for them and it’s interesting to see how they deal with it and if they do!

I would want to recommend it to my friends so I can see what they think about the story and everything else I’m most likely going to mention in this episode. And, I would obviously think the same thing for any other book, but I would be very curious about this one!

Highlights

Here is are my highlights for Front Desk by Kelly Yang!

  • Meeting and interacting with Mr. Yao is a big part of this book and helps the Tang family question if they should work at the motel, or flee and try to find another job. They have mixed feelings about him and even his son, Jason makes Mia’s life in school worse and worse!
  • Next, we have Mia meeting Lupe, her first friend in America! (Well, that’s her age at least) Lupe was super kind and generous to Mia and was always willing to hang out with her. She taught her some things, even though they were minor, and brought a smile to Mia’s face!

Character Thoughts

We have finally reached the character thoughts segment! I’ll keep this short and simple since I’ve talked about many of the characters. Like all stories, we have good characters or at least the characters that are more of our protagonist. Much like Mia, the Tang family, and the weeklies, more specifically, Frank, and Lupe!

They are all amazing characters with different mindsets and backstories. For more, difficult to describe, bad characters, we really only have Mr. Yao and maybe Jason to talk about. They are the complete opposite of the others. They are extremely rude and I bet they have a more complex background and mindset as well.

I really liked Frank and his humble and joyful self. He’s so kind and helps Mia with whatever she needs! And of course, I very much dislike Mr. Yao.

Thank You for Listening!

I hope this puts you in the right mindset for reading Front Desk by Kelly Yang. As I’ve said, this is one of my favorite books and I’m ecstatic for The Three Keys! Here is our official Readability ending…

About Kelly Yang

Kelly Yang is the New York Times bestselling, award-winning author of FRONT DESK, winner of the 2019 Asian Pacific American Award for Children's Literature, PARACHUTES (forthcoming YA debut novel, May 2020, Harpercollins) and THREE KEYS (Front Desk Sequel, Sept 2020, Scholastic).

OTHER BOOKS BY THIS AUTHOR

Front Desk

Ashlee Kelsen

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About Kelly Yang

Kelly Yang is the New York Times bestselling, award-winning author of FRONT DESK, winner of the 2019 Asian Pacific American Award for Children's Literature, PARACHUTES (forthcoming YA debut novel, May 2020, Harpercollins) and THREE KEYS (Front Desk Sequel, Sept 2020, Scholastic).

OTHER BOOKS BY THIS AUTHOR

Front Desk

About Me

Hi, my name is Ashlee Kelsen. I am the host of, Readability! I am 11 years old and I love reading! I am apart of the Battle of the Books team at my school and I am enjoying it, nonetheless. I have a little brother I hang out with all the time and we both love reading so much! I really hope you enjoy my podcast, every Saturday! Keep reading!

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