Girl in Translation: Why the author wrote this work

I haven't got very far in my book but far enough to understand the characters and what they're dealing with. This girl and her mom move from China over to America. She is struggling to speak good English and adjust. The house they have been proved is very gross, wasn't taken care of by the person who lived in it before, and is infested with bugs. I think the author wrote this book to show how much of a struggle it can be to move from one country to another, away from all your familiar surroundings, also friends and family, to learn another language and to make new friends.