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

The book offers a representation of immigrant teens’ lives and behavior that is neither the narrator’s nor the teens’. Even if I did not connect emotionally with this book, I found it a wonderful collection of ideas for educators and for people who want to know more about immigrants, refugees, and displaced people.The book is about people, not as characters, but just as people. The stories in the book focus on everyday life situations, which are described objectively by the narrator--like an ethnographer would write about a tribe or a group of people.

This is an amazing story about an amazing school that teaches and tries to integrate immigrant high school age students, from far flung countries like Nepal, Uzbekistan, and Sierra Leone, into American life. The danger and chaos that these students survived, and how they made their escapes to come to America, often alone, is eye-opening. Their struggles, successes, and failures in their new land makes one very humble. I've never read anything like this before, and it is all true, and happening right now in a very special school for immigrant students in New York City. I enjoyed and learned a lot from this book and recommend it highly.

This journalistic account of the lives of new immigrant teens is compelling in many ways, not the least of which is that it provides a window into kids from several cultures, not just one. We read this for our mother-daughter book club (mothers with pre-teen and teen daughters in 7th and 8th grade), and it generated very rich discussion amongst our diverse members. I recommend this book to urban educators, parents of teens, and the YA crowd who tend to be subjected to a really inaccurate, monolithic vision of adolescence through books and other media.

This book follows the progress and shares the histiories of immigrant students at the International High School at Prospect Heights in Brooklyn in a highly readable formal. I could only admire these teens, new to the USA and to the English language, and their dedicated teachers and school administrators. While their stories are often difficult, the author finds the humor in the struggles and posturing that is common to teens while empathetically sharing the challenges and hardships that they face. Overall, a well written, inspirational book.

I loved this book. What a new life here in America can mean really came across. I give it a four rather than a five only because I want Ms Hauser to write a sequel in about five years telling me how these young people are doing. Now I care about them and want to know.

Hauser looks at the lives of new immigrants to the U.S. and shows their sometimes painful journeys to acculturating to the U.S. Anyone who teaches in a high school, even if you have only 1 English learner, should read this book. There are a lot of characters and different-sounding names to keep track of, but their stories will touch your heart.

Opened my perspective to immigrants and refugees. The logistical and emotional struggles that they have to adjust and change are tough. I love the perspective and empathy this book gave me.

Really good book so far. I'm reading it for a graduate class in Teaching ELL in Content Courses, and this was a really interesting read. Felt connected to the students in the book too!