Mia Tang is ten years old, and living out of her car.
When she and her parents moved from their beloved China to Southern California, they were full of hope. But reality hits hard and things take a turn for the worse. When they’ve just about given up hope, her mother finds an ad for a business man named Mr. Yao offering the manager position in one of his many motels, The Calivista.
When they start managing the hotel, they find out that it’s not all what you think. Mia and her parents only get a little money from the whopping amount of money her hardworking family makes for mean Mr. Yao.
At school, things aren’t any better. Mia likes to write, but since she doesn’t know good English, she gets mixed up with tenses, and big words. Also, Jason Yao, Mr. Yao’s mean son, doesn’t like Mia any better. Doing things like stealing her new, expensive, shiny green pencil, and calling her out because of her second-hand clothes.
Mia starts lying at school, that she has a golden retriever and a big house. The only girl she takes comfort in is Guadalupe (Lupe) Garcia, who tells everyone that she has three dogs, and a huge trampoline. Can Mia make her first American friend, or will she spend her whole time in America missing her beloved cousin Shen?
But then when Mia writes a story about moving to America, she moves from twelve exclamation marks bad, to five exclamation marks good! Could she really have gone from "Check your tenses Mia!" to "Moved me to tears, Mia!"?
Lupe tells Mia about the two roller coasters. The poor people, and the rich people. On the poor people’s coaster, it’s going round and round. Poor to poor to poor. On the rich people’s roller coaster, everybody’s rich. It’s impossible to get off, but maybe there’s still hope...
A serious, strong, and funny book about the struggles of being an immigrant, and how to stand out in a world of cars when you're a bicycle.
If you liked Amal Unbound or New Kid, this book is for you!
This book gets 5/5
📚📚📚📚📚(Moved me to tears!)
Tell me what you liked and how you felt in the comments below!
Love, Book Twin #2,
Nidhi
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