Front Desk: A Graphic Novel

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?

See Mia and her friends brought to life in this graphic novel adaptation with art by Fumio Obata!

Kelly Yang is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of several books for young readers, including Three Keys, Room to Dream, Key Player, and the 2019 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature winner Front Desk, which was also chosen as a Best Book of the Year by multiple publications, including NPR, The Washington Post, and the New York Public Library. Kelly's family immigrated to the United States from China when she was a young girl, and she grew up in California, in circumstances very similar to those of Mia Tang. After attending college at the age of 13, she graduated UC Berkeley and Harvard Law School. She is the founder of The Kelly Yang Project, a leading writing and debating program for children in Asia and the United States. Her writing has been published in South China Morning Post,The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic. To learn more about Kelly and the Front Desk series, visit frontdeskthebook.com.

Fumio Obata is a comic book author and visual artist whose work and inspiration come from cultural differences and social issues in his surroundings. Fumio was born in Tokyo and grew up with the manga and anime cultures of the 1970s and ‘80s. Always fond of drawing, at school his exercise books were always full of cartoon sketches. In 1991 he moved to the UK and has been living on British soil since. He studied BA Illustration at Glasgow School of Art and obtained a Master’s degree in Communication Design from Royal College of Art in London. He pursues his career in sequential imagery/design and is eager to extend its potentials into a wider perspective.

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