New from Here
Ratings5
Average rating4
An Asian American boy fights to keep his family together and stand up to racism during the initial outbreak of the coronavirus.
When the coronavirus hits Hong Kong, ten-year-old Knox Wei-Evans’s mom makes the last-minute decision to move him and his siblings back to California, where they think they will be safe. Suddenly, Knox has two days to prepare for an international move—and for leaving his dad, who has to stay for work.
At his new school in California, Knox struggles with being the new kid. His classmates think that because he’s from Asia, he must have brought over the virus. At home, Mom just got fired and is panicking over the loss of health insurance, and Dad doesn’t even know when he’ll see them again, since the flights have been cancelled. And everyone struggles with Knox’s blurting-things-out problem.
As racism skyrockets during COVID-19, Knox tries to stand up to hate, while finding his place in his new country. Can you belong if you’re feared; can you protect if you’re new? And how do you keep a family together when you’re oceans apart? Sometimes when the world is spinning out of control, the best way to get through it is to embrace our own lovable uniqueness.
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New From Here
Overall Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ .5 (4.5/5) or 8.85/10 overall
Characters - 9
Atmosphere - 10
Writing - 9
Plot - 8
Intrigue - 9
Logic - 8
Enjoyment - 9
too soon!? oh man. But actually I think this will be great for kids trying to process the pandemic–it perfectly captures a lot of early pandemic weirdness and confusion that I'd already kind of forgotten about (the rush for hand sanitizer) as well as the anti-Asian racism on display. I think Kelly Yang is so good at showing how big challenges (pandemic, racism, immigration law, etc) face kids who have very little power and managing to show a realistic way that kids can react and effect as much change as possible–her books are furiously shining lights on injustices and showing a little bit of hope. like no Knox and his siblings aren't going to single-handedly solve racism and the pandemic but they can raise awareness and make things a little better in their community. I just think it's such a fine balance and she nails it in a way that's engaging and important for kids to read.
