Front Desk

by Kelly Yang; read by Sunny Lu

Intermediate    Listening Library    Rev. 7/18

6 CDs    6.5 hrs.    978-1-9848-4609-9    $50.00

Yang’s vivacious protagonist, ten-year-old Chinese immigrant Mia Tang, is winningly voiced by narrator Lu. Mia’s trials and tribulations, at school and at the California motel where she lives and works with her parents, range from minor worries (the motel’s miserly owner won’t let her use the pool) to major calamities (how will her uninsured family pay her mother’s emergency room bill after she’s beaten by robbers?). Throughout, Lu’s youthful voice deftly captures Mia’s emotional ups and downs while also effectively portraying a range of other characters and evoking the hope with which Mia navigates her world.

From the July/August 2019 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.