The New Kids: Big Dreams and Brave Journeys at a High School for Immigrant Teens (Paperback)

The New Kids: Big Dreams and Brave Journeys at a High School for Immigrant Teens By Brooke Hauser Cover Image
$18.99
On Our Shelves Now
2 on hand, as of Mar 17 4:45pm

Description


“A refreshing reminder of the hurdles newcomers to this country still face and how many defy the odds to overcome them,” writes The New York Times, this inspiring work of narrative journalism recounts a year in the life at the International High School at Prospect Heights.

Some walked across deserts and mountains to get here. One arrived after escaping in a suitcase. And others won’t say how they got here.

These are “the new kids”: new to America and all the routines and rituals of an American high school, from lonely first days to prom. They attend Brooklyn’s International High School at Prospect Heights, where all the students are recent immigrants learning English. Together, they come from more than forty-five countries and speak more than twenty-eight languages.

An inspiring work of narrative journalism, The New Kids chronicles a year in the lives of teenage newcomers who are at once ordinary and extraordinary in their paths to the American Dream. Hauser’s unforgettable portraits include Jessica, kicked out of her father’s home just days after arriving from China; Ngawang, who spent twenty-four hours folded up in a suitcase to escape Tibet; Mohamed, a diamond miner’s son from Sierra Leone whose past is shrouded in mystery; and Chit Su, a Burmese refugee who is the only person to speak her language in the entire school.

The students deal with enormous obstacles: traumas and wars in their native countries that haunt them, and pressures from their cultures to marry or to drop out and go to work. They aren’t just jostling for their places in the high school pecking order—they are carving out new lives for themselves in America.

About the Author


Brooke Hauser has written for The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Allure, among other publications. She lives in western Massachusetts.

Praise For…


A People Magazine "Great Read"

"The stories of these kids are simply astonishing." -- Talk of the Nation, NPR

"A refreshing reminder of the hurdles newcomers to this country still face and how many defy the odds to overcome them." --The New York Times

"Brooke Hauser, who spent a year following members of the senior class, delivers a rich, extraordinarily moving account of the challenges they met--and the many ways in which kids are the same the world over." --Parade Magazine


Product Details
ISBN: 9781439163306
ISBN-10: 1439163308
Publisher: Atria Books
Publication Date: May 1st, 2012
Pages: 336
Language: English