The New Kids: Big Dreams and Brave Journeys at a High School for Immigrant Teens
Sep 2011 · Simon and Schuster
3.8star
5 reviewsreport
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320
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About this ebook
Some walked across deserts and mountains to get here. Others flew in on planes. One arrived after escaping in a suitcase. And some wonât say how they got here.
These are âthe new kidsâ: new to America and all the routines and rituals of an American high school, from lonely first days to prom. They attend the International High School at Prospect Heights in Brooklyn, which is like most high schools in some waysâits halls are filled with students gossiping, joking, flirting, and pushing the limits of the schoolâs dress codeâbut all of the students are recent immigrants learning English. Together, they come from more than forty-five countries and speak more than twenty-eight languages.
A singular work of narrative journalism, The New Kids chronicles a year in the life of a remarkable group of these teenage newcomersâa multicultural mosaic that embodies what is truly amazing about America.
Hauserâs unforgettable portraits include Jessica, kicked out of her fatherâs home just days after arriving from China; Ngawang, who spent twenty-four hours folded up in a small suitcase to escape from Tibet; Mohamed, a diamond minerâs son from Sierra Leone whose arrival in New York City is shrouded in mystery; Yasmeen, a recently orphaned Yemeni girl who is torn between pursuing college and marrying so that she can take care of her younger siblings; and Chit Su, a Burmese refugee who is the only person to speak her language in the entire school. The students in this modern-day Babel deal with enormous obstacles: traumas and wars in their countries of origin that haunt them, and pressures from their cultures to marry or to drop out and go to work. They arenât just jostling for their places in the high school pecking orderâthey are carving out new lives for themselves in America.
The New Kids is immersion reporting at its most compelling as Brooke Hauser takes us deep inside the dramas of five International High School students who are at once ordinary and extraordinaryin their separate paths to the American Dream. Readers will be rooting for these kids long after reading the stories of where they came from, how they got here, and where they are going next.
These are âthe new kidsâ: new to America and all the routines and rituals of an American high school, from lonely first days to prom. They attend the International High School at Prospect Heights in Brooklyn, which is like most high schools in some waysâits halls are filled with students gossiping, joking, flirting, and pushing the limits of the schoolâs dress codeâbut all of the students are recent immigrants learning English. Together, they come from more than forty-five countries and speak more than twenty-eight languages.
A singular work of narrative journalism, The New Kids chronicles a year in the life of a remarkable group of these teenage newcomersâa multicultural mosaic that embodies what is truly amazing about America.
Hauserâs unforgettable portraits include Jessica, kicked out of her fatherâs home just days after arriving from China; Ngawang, who spent twenty-four hours folded up in a small suitcase to escape from Tibet; Mohamed, a diamond minerâs son from Sierra Leone whose arrival in New York City is shrouded in mystery; Yasmeen, a recently orphaned Yemeni girl who is torn between pursuing college and marrying so that she can take care of her younger siblings; and Chit Su, a Burmese refugee who is the only person to speak her language in the entire school. The students in this modern-day Babel deal with enormous obstacles: traumas and wars in their countries of origin that haunt them, and pressures from their cultures to marry or to drop out and go to work. They arenât just jostling for their places in the high school pecking orderâthey are carving out new lives for themselves in America.
The New Kids is immersion reporting at its most compelling as Brooke Hauser takes us deep inside the dramas of five International High School students who are at once ordinary and extraordinaryin their separate paths to the American Dream. Readers will be rooting for these kids long after reading the stories of where they came from, how they got here, and where they are going next.
Ratings and reviews
3.8
5 reviews
jazmin saldivar
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September 25, 2014
Such a great book makes you realize allot ! I recomend it totally ! đ
A Google user
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May 31, 2012
Amazingly touching and inspiring book.
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.
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