Middle-Grade Review: Room to Dream

One of the categories for Middle-Grade March was a book with an Asian character or that takes place in Asia. Among my audio backlog, I found Room to Dream by Kelly Yang, which has both! I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the intricate and engaging story of Mia, a Chinese-American girl who travels back to China with her family for a visit.

Mia Tang is finding seventh grade a bit challenging. Everything feels different this year, but at least she's with her two best friends, Jason and Lupe. Then, Lupe gets promoted to some higher-level high school courses, and Jason starts acting weird. Mia's parents run a small hotel in town (where they live, along with Lupe's family), and they've been saving up for years to go home to China to visit. The time has finally come! They'll be spending six weeks in China, and Mia can't wait to see her cousins and grandparents and other family she hasn't seen in five years. It's wonderful to see everyone again, though Mia has some minor issues adjusting to how different things are there from California. But she enjoys time with her family and reconnecting with her cousin and something amazing happens while Mia's there! She dreams of being a writer and lands a real--paying--job! She's hired to write a column in a Chinese newspaper for middle-school kids about what it's like to be an American middle-schooler. Her column becomes wildly popular, but Mia wonders if she should be writing such personal stuff about her friends. But they'll never see it, right? Mia and her parents return home to some new challenges: there's an offer to buy the hotel and Mia is becoming more estranged from her best friends.

It appears that this is book three of a trilogy, but I had no trouble at all jumping right in without reading the first two books. The author does a good job of providing some background so that it works as a stand-alone novel (though now that I know Mia and her friends and family, I'd like to read more!). This is a fun novel with a sense of humor, but it is also packed with all kinds of issues dealing with family, friendship, community, immigration, and diversity. I like how the author shows parallels between problems in China and in 1990's California--big problems, like gentrification and big box stores putting mom and pop places out of business, as well as smaller problems among middle-school-aged kids. Through it all, Mia dreams of becoming a writer but has to learn what that means and to put her relationships first. I enjoyed this intricate, engrossing story.

320 pages, Scholastic Press

Scholastic Audio

This book fits in the following 2022 Reading Challenges:

Diversity Challenge

Literary Escapes Challenge - California (probably the first of many!)

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here, narrated by Sunny Lu, and/or download it from Audible.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

 

 

Or you can order Room to Dream from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.