by Nicole Chen (Author)
From the author of It's Boba Time for Pearl Li! comes an empowering, heartfelt middle grade novel about a grunge-loving Taiwanese American tween who must use her voice to fight for ESL support at her school.
Lily Xiao can't wait to go to Camp Rock Out this summer, where she'll finally be able to shed her "class robot" good girl reputation and start her journey to becoming the next Eddie Vedder! And she can't wait to do it with her best friend and cousin, Vivian, who's just moved from Taiwan to Lily's California hometown. But as the two cousins work their way through seventh grade, Vivian struggles more and more with her schoolwork, which is all taught in English. If Vivian can't get her grades up, her parents won't let her go to rock camp.
Determined to help, Lily embarks on a mission to push their school to provide more support for English-as-a-Second-Language learners like Vivian. But her first-generation immigrant family is nervous about Lily challenging the status quo. We should be grateful to be here, they always say.
With Camp Rock Out on the line, Lily will need to decide how far she'll push against her family's wishes in order to stand up and speak out.
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Taiwanese American sixth grader Lily Xiao dreams of playing in a grunge band and being "amazing and brave and strong" instead of "shy and awkward." So, she persuades her Mandarin-speaking cousin Vivian to join her in signing up for Camp Rock Out, a summer program during which she will learn to play an instrument and participate in an end-of-summer concert. Despite her performance anxiety, Lily is certain that camp will help teach her how to show her family that it's okay to speak out against microaggressions and to fight for what they want. But when Vivian informs Lily that she may need summer tutoring, Lily fears attending camp alone and offers to help Vivian by asking for assistance from a teacher. In doing so, she learns that English as a Second Language isn't offered at their school, a variable that impacts Vivian's academics. Recruiting friends to form an ESL homework club, Lily and Vivian work together to boost Vivian's grades in this sweet and charming friendship story by Chen (It's Boba Time for Pearl Li!), who highlights personally informed experiences of growing up Asian American, the joys of music, and the benefits and challenges that come with advocacy via Lily's high-spirited first-person POV. Ages 8-12. (May)
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