Takei had not yet started school when he, his parents, and his younger siblings were forced to leave their home and report to the Santa Anita Racetrack for “processing and removal” due to President Franklin D.

This heartfelt memoir from an author who shares her honest, personal experiences excels at showing how Ha navigated Asian American identity and the bonds between mother and daughter.Īn insightful, moving coming-of-age tale.Ī beautifully heart-wrenching graphic-novel adaptation of actor and activist Takei’s ( Lions and Tigers and Bears, 2013, etc.) childhood experience of incarceration in a World War II camp for Japanese Americans. Employing soft and subdued coloring for the majority of the work, Ha ( Cook Korean!, 2016, etc.) uses sepia tones for recollections of her family’s history in Korea. (Many of the people she interacts with at school are White.) It isn’t until her mother reminds her of her love of comics and drawing that Chuna, now going by Robin, begins to thrive. Bullying, though for different reasons-in Korea, for coming from a single-parent home and in Alabama, for being Asian-is always prevalent in her life. She can’t help but compare Korea to the U.S., the lively streets of Seoul and her many friends to her isolation in 1990s Huntsville. It’s rough going though, especially when the rest of the Kims, her new stepfamily, are not very supportive. Her mother is still her hero, and she recognizes the sacrifices she has made in order for them to survive. Transitioning from life in Korea to America, a young woman struggles with change and figuring out where she fits.Īfter her mother’s decision to marry a man in Alabama, 14-year-old Chuna, who thought she was just going on another mother-daughter trip, grapples with culture shock, bullying, and integrating into a new family.

Cook korean by robin ha