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Americanized: Rebel Without a Green Card Spiral-Bound | March 26, 2019

Sara Saedi

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In development as a television series from Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine production company and ABC Studios!

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


“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

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 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.

FEATURED ON NPR'S FRESH AIR
A NYPL BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
A CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY BEST OF THE BEST BOOK SELECTION
A SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
FOUR STARRED REVIEWS!

“A must-read, vitally important memoir. . . . Poignant and often LOL funny, Americanized is utterly of the moment.”—Bustle
 
“Read Saedi’s memoir to push out the poison.”—Teen Vogue
 
“A funny, poignant must read for the times we are living in today.”—Pop Sugar
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Original Binding: Trade Paperback
Pages: 304 pages
ISBN-10: 1524717827
Item Weight: 0.5 lbs
Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.3 inches
“A timely reflection on the realities of immigrant lives, a must-read for anyone who has ever struggled with their identity or finding their place in the world.”—Bustle

"Filled with pop culture references, journal excerpts, photographs, and relatable coming-of-age content, this book will keep readers fully entertained while pushing them to deeper cultural understandings. "—School Library Journal, starred review

"This irresistible and timely memoir is hard to put down."—Booklist, starred review

"With gumption, Saedi draws from her American-ness and Iranian-ness for a successful depiction of immigrant life in the U.S.: a must-read."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"This is an encounter with a family that many readers will understand and others will long to be a part of, and it may inspire them to reconsider and chronicle their own family tales."—Bulletin, starred review
Sara Saedi was born in Tehran, Iran smack-dab in the middle of a war and an Islamic Revolution. She received a B.A. in Film and Mass Communications from the University of California, Berkeley and began her career as a creative executive for ABC Daytime. Since then she's penned three TV movies for ABC Family and a pilot for the Disney Channel, won a Daytime Emmy for What If..., a web series she wrote for ABC, and worked as a staff writer on the FOX sitcom The Goodwin Games. She is also the author of a YA duology, Never Ever and The Lost Kids, published by Viking. She currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband, son, and pug, where she writes for the hit CW show iZombie. Learn more on Twitter at @saaaranotsarah or at SaraSaediWriter.com.