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Tag Archives: Los Angeles

MG Review: FRONT DESK by Kelly Yang

09 Tuesday Apr 2019

Posted by Elizabeth Fais in Books, Middle Grade, Reading, Story

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Anaheim, Asian American, Chinese, Chinese American, contemporary fiction, ESL, Front Desk, immagrant, Kelly Yang, Los Angeles, Middle Grade, Must Read, We Need Diverse Books, WNDB

Making Dreams Come True

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? [Synopsis]

Discovering the Power of the Written Word

FRONT DESK measured up to all the praise, and then went beyond. It should be required reading in every middle school for a number of reasons. Mia’s pursuing her dream of becoming a writer in the face of discouragement from her family is an important lesson for us all. She didn’t give up or give in, no matter what anyone else said.

Mia discovers the power of the written word when the letters she writes to help solve the problems of her friends produce positive results. Mia expresses her courage with words. There are times when she pretends to be an adult for appropriate authority, in her effort to help a friend and right an injustice. The truth in Mia’s words resolves difficult situations and opens avenues for better lives for her family and friends.

Five things I love most about this book:

1 The Main Character—Mia is compassionate, smart, sensitive, and determined to help her family and friends realize the dream of a better life. Mia radiates an attitude of inclusion, making friends with the Weekly residents at the motel her parents manage as well as students in her class.

2 The Honesty—The author based this fictional story on her own experiences growing up, helping her parents manage a motel. This is a truthful view of the immigrant experience of her parents’ generation, told in a matter-of-fact tone without resentment. It is in turn heartbreaking for the inequities, and heartfelt in the strong sense of family and community that persevered.

3 The Compassion—In spite of the inequities and racist treatment Mia witnesses toward her parents’ generation of immigrants, she responds with kindness and a willingness to help right those wrongs.

4 The Relationships—Mia’s best friend Lupe supports her dream, encouraging Mia even when it means her friend could move away. Mia learns to reconcile the aggressions of Jason, the son of the antagonist motel owner, and find the goodness in him too. The Weekly residents stand by one another and help Mia too, becoming a true family.

5 The Courage and Ingenuity—NO SPOILERS! What I can say is that Mia’s courage, ingenuity, and talent for bringing people together result in her dream coming true in a way that creates a happy beginning to a better life for everyone.


15th YAppiest Giveaway! “Struck” by Jennifer Bosworth

30 Saturday Nov 2013

Posted by Elizabeth Fais in Book Reviews, Dystopian, Supernatural, Thriller, YA, YAppiest, Young Adult

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Tags

Apocalyptic, Dystopian, earthquakes, Elizabeth Fais, Jennifer Bosworth, lightning, Los Angeles, Mystical, natural disaster, Power, religious cults, Struck, supernatural, YAppiest Day on Earth, YAppiest Giveaway

17 YA AUTHORS + DISNEYLAND = THE YAPPIEST DAY ON EARTH!

YAppiest Day on Earth icon

If you couldn’t make The YAppiest Day on Earth, never fear! The YAppiness keeps rolling with epic read giveaways by each of the 17 authors.

This is the 15th YAppiest Giveaway! for Struck, by Jennifer Bosworth.

For a chance to win a FREE copy of this book, see the “Here’s How” section below. For a complete list of upcoming giveaways, go here.

A High Voltage Dystopian

STRUCK coverMia Price is a lightning addict. She’s survived countless strikes, but her craving to connect to the energy in storms endangers her life and the lives of those around her.

Los Angeles, where lightning rarely strikes, is one of the few places Mia feels safe from her addiction. But when an earthquake devastates the city, her haven is transformed into a minefield of chaos and danger. The beaches become massive tent cities. Downtown is a crumbling wasteland, where a traveling party moves to a different empty building each night, the revelers drawn to the destruction by a force they cannot deny. Two warring cults rise to power, and both see Mia as the key to their opposing doomsday prophecies. They believe she has a connection to the freak electrical storm that caused the quake, and to the far more devastating storm that is yet to come.

Mia wants to trust the enigmatic and alluring Jeremy when he promises to protect her, but she fears he isn’t who he claims to be. In the end, the passion and power that brought them together could be their downfall. When the final disaster strikes, Mia must risk unleashing the full horror of her strength to save the people she loves, or lose everything. [Synopsis]

To save everyone, she must risk everything…

Mia is haunted by her ability to attract lightning, and frightened by the power each strike has left building inside her. She sees her power as a curse, but the warring religious cults in Los Angeles see it as something to be claimed and manipulated to their own ends. Mia wants nothing to do with either faction, but her brother is drawn to one side and her mother the other. To make matters more confusing, she meets an enigmatic, totally hot guy named Jeremy who possesses a strange power that draws her to him. Mia doesn’t know who she can trust. Not her brother or her mother. And least of all Jeremy, who shows up when she least expects it and then disappearing just as mysteriously.

STRUCK is an engaging, super fresh take on the dystopian theme with a unique paranormal twist. Mia may be a lightning addict with mystical powers, but she is also a teenager with insecurities and family drama we can all relate to. Her mother is left mentally broken as a result of what she endured in the massive quake, and Mia is doing whatever it takes to hold their small family together. The mystical elements of the story are woven through the realistic setting of post-apocalyptic Los Angeles, substantiating a plausible explanation for the cataclysmic events Mia faces.

STRUCK is equal parts high-voltage action and thoughtful character study. For nothing shows a person for who they are more than how they act in a crisis. In the first sentence of the book, we learn that Mia’s life has been a royal flush in that department…

When you’re struck by lightning as many times as I have, you start to expect the worst pretty much all of the time.

Check out the following book trailer… 



Here’s how to win…

NOTE: The FREE giveaway of a copy of this book is open to residents of the United States only, due to shipping costs. My sincere apologies.

  1. Leave a comment on this blog–explaining WHY you want to read this book— by midnight, December 6th (1 entry).
  2. Tweet about this giveaway, including #yappiest in your tweet (1 entry).

I’ll tally the entries and choose a winner, then announce it on this blog on Sunday, December 8th. Good luck!

Stay tuned for the next YAppiests Giveaway!

Book Covers for Giveaways

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