Finally Seen by Kelly Yang

 

For five years, Lina Gao’s life has felt like a long wait in an airport terminal. Ever since her parents and little sister immigrated to America, she’s been living with her grandmother and longing for the rest of her family. When it’s finally time for Lina to join her mom, dad, and sister Millie in Southern California, she’s over the moon—but her parents may have been exaggerating about their lives a little to keep her from worrying. Lina hardly sees her dad, who has to work long shifts at a farm. Her mom and Millie have had to come up with an elaborate business scheme just to pay off the rent. And compared to her American-born classmates, Lina’s English feels like a total embarrassment. The only escape she has is graphic novels, which help her build her English reading skills and give her a way to see herself in the pages of books. But when one of her beloved graphic novels is challenged at her school, Lina will have to finally use her voice to stand up and claim her space as a part of the community.

Finally Seen has all the humor and liveliness of the Front Desk series, telling a story of an immigrant girl and her family struggling to find their place in America. Kelly Yang’s engaging writing style never fails to amuse the reader while also making deliberate messages about discrimination, money troubles, and book banning. Highly recommend for anyone who loves middle grade realistic fiction!

(Can we also acknowledge how satisfying it is that all of Kelly Yang's middle grade books have the same cover illustrator and similar fonts)