Powerful and moving, this account of teenaged refugees adapting to life in America offers a nuanced take on immigration, multiculturalism, and America's role globally.

Follows the lives of twenty-two immigrant teenagers from nations devastated by drought or famine or war, over the course of their first school year in America. The talented and endlessly resourceful Denver South High School teacher Mr. Eddie Williams welcomes these students, who speak fourteen different languages but no English and are completely unfamiliar with American culture, to his specially created English Language Acquisition class. He guides them through the enormous challenges of gaining basic English skills, adapting to life in the developed world, and coping with the usual pangs of adolescence. Together their class represents a microcosm of the global refugee crisis, and highlights the moral issues of immigration, inclusion, and America's role on the global stage.