Americanized: Rebel Without a Green Card

This hilarious, poignant and true story of one teens experience growing up in America as an undocumented immigrant from the Middle East is an increasingly necessary read in todays divisive world. Perfect for fans of Mindy Kaling and Trevor Noahs books.

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 didnt learn of her undocumented status until her older sister wanted to apply for an after-school job, but couldnt because she didnt have a Social Security number.

Fear of deportation kept Sara up at night, but it didnt keep her from being a teenager. She desperately wanted a green card, along with clear skin, her own car, and a boyfriend.

Americanized follows Saras progress toward getting her green card, but thats only a portion of her experiences as an Iranian-American teenager. From discovering that her parents secretly divorced to facilitate her mothers 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.

Very funny but never flippant, Saedi mixes 90s pop culture references, adolescent angst and Iranian history into an intimate, informative narrative. The New York Times

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