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Title details for It's a Privilege Just to Be Here by Emma Sasaki - Available

It's a Privilege Just to Be Here

by Emma Sasaki
Cindy Kay
Audiobook
66 of 66 copies available
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66 of 66 copies available
Wesley Friends School is Washington, DC's most prestigious prep school, so of course Aki Hiyashi-Brown is proud to teach at it and send her daughter Meg there. Why wouldn't she be proud? Parents kill to have their kid enrolled at Wesley. Not only is Wesley the premier academic destination for the children of the capital elite, it's all about Diversity, Achievement, Collegiality, as all of their very glossy brochures will tell you. Aki should know. As one of the few teachers of color on staff, her face is plastered on every piece of marketing material the school puts out. But when someone graffities Make Wesley White Again on campus, it exposes dangerous fault lines in the school community—ones Aki may have spent a lifetime learning to ignore. But her headstrong daughter Meg, and Meg's similarly impassioned classmates, aren't willing to let slide. Before Aki can sort out her own feelings about the hate crime, the school's administration jumps into crisis-management mode and assigns Aki as head of the Racial Equity Task Force. Between hasty changes to the curriculum and an anonymous instagram account documenting a history of racism on campus, Aki finds herself caught in the crossfire. Written with the keen eye of a prep-school insider, It's a Privilege Just to Be Here is a piercing takedown of the American institution of prep schools and a searing perspective on the growing tensions between generations with different ideas of how to fight for what you believe in.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    June 4, 2024

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781666661194
      • File size: 292042 KB
      • Duration: 10:08:25

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 29, 2024
      A Japanese American private school teacher gets caught in a firestorm of racial politics in Sasaki’s timely if muddled debut. Aki Hayashi-Brown teaches history at the prestigious Wesley Friends School in Washington, D.C., where her daughter, Meg, is a junior. When someone graffitis “Make Wesley White Again” on the arts building, Aki is dragooned into serving as interim director of a new DEI task force. Meg insists her mom find a way to punish suspected culprit Aaron Wakeman, son of the school’s biggest donor, but Aki feels torn between her fierce desire for justice and the instinct her parents instilled in her to cope with racism by “ignoring, denying, or deflecting.” Meg, on the other hand, is outspoken in her accusations against Aaron, and after she’s suspended for slapping him, the pressures on Aki mount. Some of the satire feels a bit convoluted—Aki is understandably conflicted, but it’s sometimes hard to tell whether Sasaki means to skewer the cloistered world of private schools or the cultural forces that make her characters believe such institutions are a necessary evil. Despite its occasional frustrations, this leaves readers with much to chew on. Agent: Melissa Danaczko, Stuart Krichevsky Literary.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Narrator Cindy Kay entertains listeners as she skillfully delivers this satirical novel's snarky tone. Aki Hiyashi-Brown accepts a teaching job at the expensive, predominantly white Wesley Friends School in order for her daughter, Meg, to be able to attend. After racist graffiti is found at the school, Aki, one of the few teachers of color, is assigned to be the head of the new DEI task force. But the committee ignores Aki's recommendations, and no real change is made. While the story's pacing is a bit slow, especially in the first half, Sasaki's insight into the elite private school setting creates a thought-provoking listening experience that is enhanced by Kay's biting performance. V.T.M. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      December 6, 2024

      The prep school world and its various archetypes provide a dynamic setting for this debut novel. Sasaki herself is an insider in the prestigious private school community and effectively uses it for the setting. Aki Hayashi-Brown is a history teacher at the Wesley Friends School, the DC institution famous for educating the children of presidents and other Washington elites. The daughter of immigrants who grew up under the demanding gaze of her Japanese mother, Aki isn't just a teacher at this prestigious institution but also a parent, which makes it even more difficult to deal with elite and pampered students and parents without alienating her daughter, Meg, from her classmates. To add to Aki's stress, Meg is increasingly moody and distant as she becomes the leader of a movement seeking justice in the wake of racist vandalism at the school. Narrator Cindy Kay navigates credibly between two languages and three generations, keeping the narrative flowing forward with clarity. She sets the tones that relay more than just the words, also offering layers of context. VERDICT Listeners will feel the struggle between mother and daughter and between exclusion and inclusion in this solid purchase for libraries.--Laura Trombley

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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