MMGM: Three Keys (Front Desk #2) by Kelly Yang

 

It's 1994 and life has certainly changed for Mia Tang, 11. You may recall from Front Desk, that when she was much younger, Mia and her parents had emigrated to the United States from China hoping for a better life. But, you may also recall, the degrees and work experience Mia's parents had didn't help them get jobs for which they were qualified (he is a scientist, she is an engineer). Instead, they took menial jobs, finally landing at the Calavista Motel as maintenance workers. But eventually, they buy the Calavista from the very unpleasant owner Mr. Yao, whose son is in Mia's class and who bullies her every chance he gets. But the Tang's also make good friends among the more permanent residents of the motel. Mia and Lupe Garcia, whose dad works for the Tangs, are now BFFs, and she has even made friends with Jason Yao. 

Mia is excited to begin sixth grade, hoping to improve her writing with the help of her new teacher Mrs. Welch, who clearly resents teaching in a trailer because of budget cuts, blaming it on immigrants the state has to take care of. It soon becomes clear that Mrs. Welch supports Pete Wilson for governor and Proposition 187 which would prohibit undocumented immigrants from using any state services, including health care and public schools. 

Then Lupe tells Mia that her family is undocumented, but working on getting the papers they need, and they live in fear of being deported. When Mia's first writing assignment on immigration is returned, Mrs. Welch has only given her a C, not the A or B+ she was expecting. What begin as a great new beginning for the Mia feels like it is quickly turning into more disappointment and worry.

And she's right. When Lupe's grandmother in Mexico dies, her mother decides to take a chance and return there for her funeral. When they don't hear from Mrs. Garcia for weeks, there is nothing that can be done to find out what happened without the authorities discovering they are undocumented and deporting the whole Garcia family. But when Mr. Garcia drives down to the border to find his wife, he is picked up and held by the immigration police.

On top of that, the Tang's improvements of the Calavista are finally paying off financially, but when new property manager Hank (you remember him from Book #1) writes Immigrants Welcome in big letters outside the motel, it ends up on the nightly news and investors are not happy. Now, the Tang's financial future is once again in trouble but Mia insists the sign must not be take down.

It begins to look like nothing is going to go right during Mia's sixth grade year, but this is a girl with spunk and drive, and she is not going to go down without a fight. Can she change people's minds, though, especially Mrs. Welch's, about immigrants and the unfairness of Proposition 187? Can she help bring back Mr. and Mrs. Garcia, or has she lost her best friend to politics. 

Some of the issues addressed in Three Keys are pretty heavy duty for a middle grade novel, and yet what better place to explore these issues of immigration and racism than at this moment when they are sadly still so relevant and urgent. For example, there is racial animosity directed at Hank, who is African American, but who tells Lupe "I have fear every day...But let me tell you something about fear: If you don't control it, it controls you." (pg 215) And recent immigrants like Tangs are were and are still looked down on by people like Mr. Yao, and others. 

I wouldn't say that Mia develops as much as I would say that she expands who she is, and who she is is passionate about supporting the people she cares about, and what is happening in the world as it impacts them, as well as her and her family. Her political awakening is interesting to see and I think more kids are having that kind of experience today and can really relate to her. Mia certainly embodies Hank's definition of the three keys of friendship: "You gotta listen, you gotta care, and most importantly, you gotta keep trying." (pg 245)   

I would not skip reading the Author's Note in the back matter. There is a lot of information about Proposition 187 and life in California in 1994 for immigrant adults and children and she brings it into the present so well, and includes sources. 

The next book in the Front Desk trilogy, Room to Dream (Front Desk #3), will be out on September 21, 2021 and I can't wait to see what Mia, Lupe, and Jason are up to.

This book is recommended for readers age 9+

This book was an eARC gratefully received from Edelweiss+

Be sure to check out the other Marvelous Middle Grade Monday offerings, 

now being carried on by Greg at Always in the Middle

Sugar by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Sugar is 10, an orphan and although she is not longer a slave, she sure doesn't feel free.  She has lived on the River Road plantation where they grow sugar cane in Louisiana her whole life, but she really just wants to go north and see what the world is about.

It is 1870 and reconstruction is in full swing and things are changing, or so says Mr. Wills, owner of the plantation.  Sugar is secretly friends with his son, Billy, who tells her that his father has now hired some Chinese men to come and work on the plantation.  Even though he swears her to secrecy, word gets our and the older former slaves that Sugar lives with are afraid they will be out of a job and their homes, ramshackle shacks though they are.

Sugar is excited when the Chinese workers arrive and is immediately drawn to the youngest of the group (who, although his age isn't given, thought thought was in his teens) who teaches right off the bat her to say hello in Chinese.  Although forbidden to go near them by Mister and Missus Beale, her unofficial grandparents, Sugar can't resist and pretty soon has managed to bring Chinese and African Americans together.

It is Mr. Will's hope that his son will on day take over the plantation and so Billy decides to work in the fields to start learning about sugar cane production.  And when his mother brings out lemonade and ham stuffed biscuits, the Overseer gets angry because Billy is slowing down production.  He and Mr. Wills exchange some heated words and the Overseer is fired.  He leaves, vowing revenge.

Times are indeed changing and when the Overseer takes his revenge, the result brings changes for everyone though not what might be expected.

Narrated in the first person by Sugar, she is a sweet, engaging, funny, intelligent, spunky girl who has trouble obeying orders and has a curiosity as big as the world.  She wants to be a kid, to play and explore and pretend, but she had to work and that part of her story was hard to read.  And she has her own way of looking at things, all told in speech that is clipped in that way I have noticed kids who are always busy and think sometimes speak, almost telegraph style.

And I learned something new.  I knew that Chinese immigrants had arrived in this country in the late 1800s but I thought they had mostly settle on the west coast.  That they were hired for plantation work after the Civil War and Emancipation was very new to me, but as Sugar tells out, many former slaves went north and workers were needed.

Mr. Will isn't by any means the kindest man in the world, but he does represent those plantation owners (and others) who recognized that things had change and would continue to change.  He was the forward looking foil to the Overseer's backward looking character.

Jewell Parker Rhodes, who also wrote the wonderful Ninth Ward, really knows how to convey hard, back-breaking work under a burning sun as well as the piteously poor living conditions that former slaves found themselves in.  Freedom clearly does not mean better living conditions.  The former slaves were really now working for very little money - hence the Great Migration north.  On the other hand, Rhodes can convey the feeling of joy and sense of freedom that flying the first kite Sugar had ever seen brought gave her.

On the whole, Sugar is just the kind of book I would have read and loved when I was around 10-11 years old.  BUT...there were some things in the book I find hard to believe as an adult and truly wonder what my 10 year old self would have thought about them.  And I would be curious to know how others feel about them.

The one word that kept playing around in my head while I was reading Sugar was fanciful.  But in a good way for young readers.

This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This book was borrowed from a friend