Front Desk cover art

Front Desk

 Preview

Audible Standard 1-month free trial

Auto-renews at $8.99/mo + applicable tax after 30-day trial. Cancel Anytime
Try for $0.00
Compare plans

Front Desk

Written by: Kelly Yang
Narrated by: Sunny Lu
Try for $0.00

$8.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $25.80

Buy Now for $25.80

Winner of the Asian / Pacific American Award for Children's Literature!

* "Many readers will recognize themselves or their neighbors in these pages." --Kirkus Reviews, starred review

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? Asian Creators Family Life Fiction Growing Up Growing Up & Facts of Life Literature & Fiction Multicultural Stories China

You may also enjoy...
Fish in a Tree cover art
Fish in a Tree Written by: Lynda Mullaly Hunt
Because of Mr. Terupt cover art
Because of Mr. Terupt Written by: Rob Buyea
Chef's Secret cover art
Chef's Secret Written by: Kelly Yang
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1

Continue the series
Three Keys cover art
Three Keys Written by: Kelly Yang
Room to Dream cover art
Room to Dream Written by: Kelly Yang
Key Player cover art
Key Player Written by: Kelly Yang
Top Story (Front Desk #5) cover art
Top Story (Front Desk #5) Written by: Kelly Yang
All stars
Most Relevant
THE BEST BOOK EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Amazing AND CHEAP its sooooooo good 😊 I have the book and audio

AMAZING

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I liked how the story goes the girl has some challenges which are developing her character in the story and help us understand what she went through.
Overall the story was great

How I listened to the book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I’ll be coming back to this book often. It was an amazing listen, and as a second generation immigrant I could relate to many of the things that our wonderful protagonist had gone through (all the way down to the coin collection, funny enough). This book helps shine a light on the struggles immigrants face, from financial issues, discrimination, adapting to a new culture, learning a new language, etc. If every child - hell, every adult too - read this book, I feel like they’d walk away from it with more compassion and kindness towards all people. 10/10

Everyone needs to read this

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book is great! I played it for my grade 6 class. certainly some parts we had to talk about. some stronger racial language and one violent scene.
I would recommend an even older age group or make sure young readers are a little bit more mature for some of this content.
The book generated some great discussions and went well with our elections unit.
this is a really great book and worth a read!

played it for my class

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It was amazing to feel everything so much while I listened to this. I often try to listen to more books while doing housework and there are some that I tune out and forget what I heard. I was so tense taking in every word of this, I would forget to do chores, just stand there and breathe. I was happy crying by the end. The sequels are cued up in my wish list!

Incredibly moving

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.