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by: Kelly Yang
Recommended Age: 8 years and above
Lexile: N/A
Sensitive Topic(s): Racism, COVID
"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." (book summary)
My Thoughts:
I found this book extremely timely as you don’t find many books (and I’m saying this as a kid) that actually talk about an issue that you have actually been through. I know that “New From Here” will give an opportunity to readers to laugh, something that’s much needed nowadays, especially during a pandemic. A few times in the book, I found myself laughing at the naivety and innocence of the characters in the book. I found it really amusing when they had these tiny hopes that the pandemic would be over in a month or two. I wish that were true. The book was released in March 2022.
I also found “New From Here” extremely powerful, as it tackles quite a few issues in the world that unfortunately exist. Such as ADHD, then add on racism and the hate that many Asians faced in the early days of the pandemic where everyone was operating from a place of fear. Additionally, the fact that Lea and Knox (the MC) don’t look as Asian as their older brother, Bowen has some added problems that no 12-year-old should have to face. Furthermore, add the layers of having to transition to life without their dad and having their mom now as a single-parent.
One other thing that cemented this book’s place on my 2022 top books was the fact that Ms. Yang was writing this from her personal experiences. That’s the thing that always makes a book stand out. (She also wrote Front Desk!)
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