Front Desk, the first book in this series, examined the immigrant experience primarily from the perspective of the Tangs and their Chinese friends. Three Keys expands on that theme by acknowledging that not all immigrant experiences are the same. Within the Chinese community, there is a vast difference between the Tangs and the Yaos.

The Yao family has already achieved the American Dream and is now spiraling downward. Lupe once used the metaphor of a roller coaster to describe how poor people stay poor. Mia thinks her family has finally climbed aboard the rich roller coaster. However, she now understands that what goes up can also go down. Mia has this epiphany as she sees Mr. Yao fretting about paying his bills: “As I watched him, I started thinking about the two roller coasters again. I’d been so fixated on going from the poor one to the rich roller coaster, I never once thought about what it’d be like to go the other way around” (219).

Despite the struggles of the Tang family, they came to the country legally. They don’t have to fear deportation. This isn’t the case for the Garcias.