Front Desk by Kelly Yang

Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books
On Sale Date; May 29th 2018
Pages: 298

Ten year old Mia Tang has recently moved to the US from China with her parents. Their start in their new country was not the easiest one. First of all, they didn't get the kind of job they expected to do; they get by with bad paying jobs in Chinese restaurants and they live in their car for a while. Their lives seem to take a turn for the better when Mia's parents get the chance to become managers of a local Anaheim motel. The motel is owned by mister Yao. He seems nice and offering them a good job. What they don't know yet is that Mister Yao is anything but a good boss to them. Even is his son Jason, who Mia discovers later, is in her new class and making her life not easy with his bully behavior. Without them knowing it, Mr Yao changes little things in their contract so that they get paid just a very small amount of money, instead of what he said he would pay them, and he adds all kinds of small letters and rules and regulations. Beside her new school life, Mia tries to help her parents by managing the front desk. It is here that she learns about the ins and outs of the motel. There are living normal guests and the weeklies, who more or less live in the motel as a cheap type of housing. One of the weeklies is Hank, who becomes a true friend of her and her parents.
During her time at the motel, Mia faces a lot of serious issues; the issues with Mr Yao, but also racism when Hank is accused of stealing a car just because he is black, violence when her parents get attacked at the front desk, the bullying of Jason, and their parents try to help many illegal Chinese immigrants who are in trouble and are in need of a place to stay. Secretly, they let them stay in room nr 9, hoping that Mr. Yao doesn't find out. But when he does, their life is in serious danger, will everything turn out for the better for Mia's family?

WOW! JUST WOW! This book totally stole my heart! From the first page of the introduction of the author, who based this book on her own life, I was hooked. I think this book is already the top one of my favorite book of this year. Altough it is a book marketedd for middle grade readers, it is certainly not specifically written that way. I rather point out that this book is for everyone above middle grade and every age, because there are so many serious topics and issues handled in this outstandingly brilliant book.
The chast of character with Mia as a shining center was just terrific, you can just imagine every character in your head as a reader, just like seeing it in a movie.  The storyline isn't like anything I ever read before, altough it was quite serious and harsh at some points, it was magnificent. Without giving away any more spoilers, I would just recommend you to read this beauty of a book!!