Brooke Hauser - New American High: 45 Countries, 28 Languages - Immigrant Teens in High School

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PRAISE FOR

The New Kids

Hausers writing resonates with the message she forwards, which is epitomized by International and its cohorts: Keep hope breathing. Hauser provides a clear view into the mindset of immigrant teenagers. In doing so, she succeeds in telling a story about people rather than a school. Highly recommended.

Library Journal

[Ms. Hauser] tackles themes like religious norms, teenage pregnancy, unorthodox living arrangements and the question that has troubled young immigrants for as long as they have been coming to this country: What does it really mean to be an American?

The New York Times

Hauser clearly cares about the students whose lives she entered for a year, as does the reader, who rejoices for those who get word of scholarships in the spring and regrets the outcomes of undocumented students who are wait-listed for life.

Booklist

Required reading.

New York Post

This is a compelling tale of what it means to teach with heart... and with results. Take a break from the hard-hammering headlines of ineffective teachers and standardized test scores and be reminded of the nobility of dedicated teachingand learning. Highly recommended.

NetGalley

Hauser wisely does not limit herself to relying on the students as sources. She also becomes well acquainted with teachers, parents, siblings, guardians and social workers involved in the lives of the students. The author does her best throughout the narrative to determine which of the students will walk through open doors to the American Dream, and which will find the door slammed shut. A well-balanced narrative of varied humanity.

Kirkus Reviews

Hauser tried to see the students through the lenses they have provided, and readers will be rewarded with a richer understanding of how our current immigration policies affect the futures of teens who are different from those born here and yet share so many similarities with teens everywhere.

School Library Journal

Heartbreaking, hopeful, and utterly enthralling. The New Kids is the spellbinding account of what happens when students like Ngawang, who began his journey to America zipped inside a suitcase, meet the kind of teachers willing to confront bootleggers who use kids as slave labor. For real-life drama and a glimpse of America at its best, The New Kids is unbeatable.

Christopher McDougall, author of Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Super Athletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen

Brooke Hausers The New Kids is a beautiful, intimate love letter to both New York City and the enduring anxiety of adolescence, no matter where one is born. By immersing herself, and the reader, in the microcosm of a single high school, Brooke reveals the tectonic shifts of world geopolitics, and how war and oppression translate to individuals lives. From the lunch room hierarchies to the prom, the book combines the familiar with the foreign in an engaging, observant narrative.

Jennifer 8. Lee, author of The Fortune Cookie Chronicles

Rich with cinematic detail, The New Kids is a moving, sharply observed portrait of the modern immigrant experience, told through the lens of something we can all relate to: high school. The struggles and triumphs of Hausers young subjects are as dramatic and inspiring as anything youll find on the fiction shelves.

Ransom Riggs, author of Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children

Brooke Hausers The New Kids is a beautifully written and deeply moving account of young people trying to find their place in the new America.

Warren St. John, author of Outcasts United

The trust between Brooke Hauser and her teenage subjects infuses her prose. This unique bond embodies the kind of special connection that I, as a documentary filmmaker, continuously strive for. With grace, compassion, and humor, she captures the complexity and intricacies of the young immigrant experience in the United States and teaches us something new about the changing face of our country through the unflinching eyes of its next generation.

Ross Kauffman, director of the Academy Awardwinning documentary, Born Into Brothels

Brooke Hauser is a compassionate and spellbinding storyteller; she has won the trust of these young people, and we older Americans should feel profoundly optimistic and grateful that such talented youth have chosen our country.

Melissa Fay Greene, author of No Biking in the House Without a Helmet

This wonderful book connects us to the complexity, intensity and liveliness of refugee and immigrant teenagers. Hauser is masterful at storytelling. The New Kids is a must-read for anyone interested in teaching, teens, or our new America. It does what the best writing does: it increases our moral imaginations.

Mary Pipher, author of Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls

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Copyright 2011 by Brooke Hauser

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Atria Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Atria Books hardcover edition September 2011

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Designed by Jill Putorti

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hauser, Brooke.

The new kids : Big dreams and brave journeys at a high school for immigrant teens / Brooke Hauser.

p. cm.

1. Children of immigrantsEducation (Secondary)New York (State)New YorkCase studies. 2. High school seniorsNew York (State)New YorkCase studies. 3. International High School (New York, N.Y.)StudentsCase studies. I. Title.

LC3746.5.N7H38 2011
373.18dc22 2010051302

ISBN 978-1-4391-6328-3
ISBN 978-1-4516-2080-1 (ebook)

For my family and
In loving memory of Saul Shapiro

They asked us questions. How much is two and one? How much is two and two? But the next young girl also from our city, went and they asked her, How do you wash stairs, from the top or from the bottom? She says, I dont go to America to wash stairs.

PAULINE NOTKOFF, A POLISH-JEWISH IMMIGRANT WHO PASSED
THROUGH ELLIS ISLAND IN 1917. INTERVIEWED IN 1985 .

Everybody has The Outfitthe outfit they bought for America. The students who have lived in the country for longer have learned how to blend in better, disappearing in brand-name sneakers and low-riding jeans. But each September on the first day of school, the new kids are easy to spot.