A review by jillmccracken
Top Story by Kelly Yang

4.0

Top Story by Kelly Yang is the 5th installment in her Front Desk series. Ms. Yang skillfully weaves several threads together in this very busy story. Mia’s narration seems authentic and typical of the mindset of a 13-year-old girl who is trying to change the world while experiencing typical middle-school emotions. This adventure finds Mia in San Francisco to attend a prestigious writing camp. While visiting the city, Mia learns about the famed San Francisco Chinatown, and she experiences it as a welcoming neighborhood of aunties and uncles who look out for each other and for newcomers. The story is set in the mid-1990s, at the beginning of the tech boom in San Francisco. The kids were interested in the details about the sporadic availability of devices and varying attitudes about computers in comparison to all they have access to today. We were excited for this update in Mia’s story. Ms. Yang does an excellent job providing details from previous books (without actually recapping), and addressing middle school friendship and social justice themes in a way that is accessible to teens, tweens and almost tweens.