The following version of the novel was used to create this study guide: Yang, Kelly. Front Desk. Arthur A. Levine Books, June 25, 2019.

In the young adult novel Front Desk by Kelly Yang, ten-year-old Chinese immigrant Mia Tang did not understand when her mother told her they moved to America because it was “freer” (4). Mia only saw how expensive things were and the poverty of her own family. As Mia experienced example after example of the way immigrants and Blacks were mistreated, she decided it was time for all of them to work together.

When Mia’s parents were hired to work as managers of a motel in California, they believed they had finally found a job that would put them on the road to success. They soon realized their tightfisted boss, Michael Yao, was just as unfair as their previous bosses. Yao made them pay for the broken washing machine. He also docked their wages when a weekly customer lost his job and could not pay.

During this turmoil, Mia was shocked when a guest’s car was stolen and Hank Caleb, a Black man who had lived at the motel for six months was fingered by Yao and the police as the main suspect. Yao told Mia that all Blacks were bad. When Hank’s employer learned that Hank was a suspect in the theft, Hank was fired from his job. Hank later told Mia that all Blacks experienced that sort of unjust treatment at some point in their lives. Mia could not understand why Hank was not more upset about what had happened.

Later, it was discovered that the owner of the car had staged the theft to get money from insurance. The officer who had questioned Hank as a suspect apologized to Hank when Mia insisted. Hank told the officer he had lost his job. He asked the officer to think the next time he was suspicious of a man just because he was Black. Mia’s parents told her that apology was why they had moved to America. Even though Hank was accused of a crime, the police did not have the power to put him in jail with no evidence. They explained there was a time in China that people were arrested and taken away with no proof. They moved to America because they did not want Mia to experience that sort of injustice.

Mia also saw the way immigrants were treated unjustly and preyed upon by loan sharks and unfair bosses. One immigrant who stayed at their motel said his boss had taken his identification and passport. He was forced to work 18 hours a day and sleep in his boss’ basement. He said he felt like a slave. Another had been beaten by loan sharks when he was unable to repay the money he had borrowed when he lost his job. When Mia learned about an elderly couple in Vermont looking to give their motel away to the winner of an essay contest, she believed that was her family’s way out of their situation.

Unfortunately, Mia did not win the contest. Things got even worse when Yao announced he was selling the motel where Mia’s parents were working. Mia set her sights on raising the $300,000 needed to purchase the motel. She contacted local business managers, immigrants who had recently visited the motel, the weekly residents of the motel, and the other people who had entered the essay contest. All of them invested in the motel. Even though Yao tried to trick Mia and her family into thinking he had another buyer willing to pay more for the hotel, he eventually agreed to sell to them.