The hilarious, poignant, and true story of one teen's experience growing
up in America as an undocumented immigrant from the Middle East, perfect
for fans of Mindy Kaling and Lena Dunham's books.
At 13, 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 gracefully 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. This moving, often hilarious story is for
anyone who has ever shared either fear.