Uni High Reads

“At thirteen, bright-eyed, straight-A student Sara Saedi uncovered a terrible family secret: she was breaking the law simply by living in the United States. Only two years old when her parents fled Iran, she didn’t learn of her undocumented status until her older sister wanted to apply for an after-school job, but couldn’t because she didn’t have a Social Security number.
Fear of deportation kept Sara up at night, but it didn’t keep her from being a teenager. She desperately wanted a green card, along with clear skin, her own car, and a boyfriend.
Americanized follows Sara’s progress toward getting her green card, but that’s only a portion of her experiences as an Iranian-‘American’ teenager. From discovering that her parents secretly divorced to facilitate her mother’s green card application to learning how to tame her unibrow, Sara pivots from the terrifying prospect that she might be kicked out of the country at any time to the almost-as-terrifying possibility that she might be the only one of her friends without a date to the prom.” – Goodreads

I initially struggled with the tone of this book – it seemed a little too glib/flippant/cutsey. Soon, however, I really identified with many of Sara’s teenage struggles/angst. This wasn’t initially as much about immigration as it had seemed, and I guess I expected more of it to be explicitly about that. She describes a humanizing portrait of being a normal, everyday person who wants to live in America and who describes all of the incredibly relatable concerns of being a teenage kid. Toward the end, she gets more detailed about American rules and regulations that had frustrated her family’s chances at citizenship (or at least not illegal status – a nuance you’ll learn about in this book!). This is a good memoir for people of all ages to read, especially those who want to know more about US immigration policies. A few parts made me laugh out loud, and I really grew to appreciate her voice and authenticity.

Call # 305.89155 Sa163sa

Review by Vicki