Three Keys by Kelly Yang

Publisher: Scholastic
Publication date:  September 15th 2020
Pages: 288

Three Keys is the sequel to Kelly Yang's outstanding previous book Front Desk. In Front Desk, we met Mia Tang and her family. They recently immigrated from China to Anaheim, California (near to Disneyland) where after living in their car for a while, they got a job as cleaners at the Calivista motel of the mean Mr. Yao, where Mia manned the front desk after school. The motel which Mia's parents eventually bought and are now the proud owners of.

In this sequel, everything seems to have gotten better for Mia and her parents. And at the start of the book, Mia is starting in sixth grade, which she is very excited for. We also meet her friend Lupe, who is one of the key characters in this story.

As in Front Desk, the story is set in the late 90's, based on the author's own experiences, but could as be taken place today, as this topic is more relevant then ever now; in this story, a governor election is coming up soon. Key in this election campaign is a new law, proposition 187, that prevents undocumented children from going to school and also threatens them to being deported back to their homeland. This is the red line of the story in this book, and how Mia and her friend Lupe are affected by it.

Mia is starting sixth grade with a good feeling, but this turn sour when she experienced the behavior of her new homeroom teacher. Mia was always good at writing and got good grades, but somehow, although she is working her hard, her grades drop terribly, and during class discussions, it seems that this new teacher is not very fond of immigrants and is supporting the election candidate that supports the new law that many of Mia's friends and classmates are fearing seriously. Things get worse when all over California and in Mia's neighborhood too, graffiti is found with the clear words ''immigrants go home to your own country'', and she even finds a leaflet that someone placed in the pool of their motel, her home, that says'; ''this pool is for whites only''. Tension build up in the USA, and also in Mia's friend Lupe's life. As when the election has passed and the law has passed. Her friend Lupe, even as some of her classmates, are not appearing in school one day.
Lupe's father eventually even gets deported back to Mexico, and can not go back home to the USA anymore, which leaves Lupe and Mia's family devastated as they are like family. And her whole school finds out she works at a motel which she tried to keep a secret. Because of the new immigration law, and the sign outside the motel where they intentionally state that immigrants are welcome, the motel start to struggle, and the investors are leaving, and Mia hopes to find a way to stop this, Mia and Lupe both are starting to use their voice and stand up, as Lupe get's the chance to speak up and for immigrants everywhere nationally during a court hearing to get her father back home.
Meanwhile their friend Jason, Mr. Yao's learns to use his voice to stand up to his parents for himself, let them know his dreams matter. And with the help of her family, the hotel and Mia's school grades are getting back in the good again..!!

I loved, loved, loved Front Desk so I was very looking forward to read and review Three Keys. The book topped my expectations as this story is again fantastic in every way. This book  perfectly puts kids and their hopes and dreams at the center of the story and then shows those same kids empowered to make effective change for the better. The storyline is just in one word perfect. It's so good that I just find it hard to begin to name what love the most; the sense of community and family between Mia, her family and friends and the motel staff and residents, the character development and growth in all the characters, the reallness of the story, everything is based on real life events, and the author's childhood. This is just not the average middle grade read, this is soooo much more!
Without further ado, I loved this book and I hope there will be a third, fourth, fifth and so on in this series that you can't get enough of and is a perfect read for every age, young and old!!