FINDING JUNIE KIM by Ellen Oh
For fans of Inside Out and Back Again and Amina’s Voice comes a breathtaking story of family, hope, and survival from Ellen Oh, cofounder of We Need Diverse Books. When Junie Kim is faced with middle school racism, she learns of her grandparents’ extraordinary strength and finds her voice. Inspired by her mother’s real-life experiences during the Korean War, Oh’s characters are real and riveting.
Included in NPR’s 2021 Books We Love List
“Both unique and universal, timely and timeless.” —Padma Venkatraman, Walter Award-winning author of The Bridge Home
“A moving story that highlights how to find courage in the face of unspeakable hardship.” —Hena Khan, award-winning author of Amina’s Voice
“Junie discovers where she comes from and gains the courage to make a difference in the future.” —Wendy Wan-Long Shang, award-winning author of The Great Wall of Lucy Wu
Junie Kim just wants to fit in. So she keeps her head down and tries not to draw attention to herself. But when racist graffiti appears at her middle school, Junie must decide between staying silent or speaking out.
Then Junie’s history teacher assigns a project and Junie decides to interview her grandparents, learning about their unbelievable experiences as kids during the Korean War. Junie comes to admire her grandma’s fierce determination to overcome impossible odds, and her grandpa’s unwavering compassion during wartime. And as racism becomes more pervasive at school, Junie taps into the strength of her ancestors and finds the courage to do what is right.
Finding Junie Kim is a reminder that within all of us lies the power to overcome hardship and emerge triumphant.
What worked: I totally loved this story! Powerful writing that pulls you right into a story where a middle schooler learns about her own beloved grandparent’s childhood during the Korean War. Junie’s story is one that is needed right now, especially during the recent attacks against those in the Asian community. Junie witnesses first hand this hatred by the graffiti on her middle school’s walls and also by the local bully who targets her everyday at the bus stop.
What’s so strong about this story isn’t just her grandparent’s stories of racism they faced when they first moved to the United States from Korea, but their harrowing stories of survival during the Korean War. Junie gains strength through their stories and is able to realize how important it is to speak out in the face of racism, even when it’s scary. I especially loved how her grandfather shared with her that silence can be a weapon.
‘Silence in the face of racism gives racism the power to continue to hurt people of color. Only by speaking up can we take away that power.’
Junie and her friends do just that with their school presentation on racism and standing up against it.
Powerful coming of age story where a young girl draws strength from her Korean grandparent’s stories during the Korean War and the racism they faced when they first came to the United States. But this story is much more than that. It shows how important it is to not be silent in the face of racism. Totally recommend. Highly suggest this be included in middle school and high school libraries. Also would be a great book club selection.
2. Powerful writing
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LAST NIGHT AT TELEGRAPH CLUB by Malinda Lo
Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can’t remember exactly when the feeling took root—that desire to look, to move closer, to touch. Whenever it started growing, it definitely bloomed the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club. Suddenly everything seemed possible.
But America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father—despite his hard-won citizenship—Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day.
She tries to make sense of her feelings toward Kath, which are frowned upon and told are ‘wrong’. All this happens during a tumultuous time in US history and the fear of coming out might mean being arrested.
What worked: Strong coming-of-age story set in the 1950s amidst McCarthyism, the Red-scare paranoia, and deportation. Mostly though this is the story of Lily and Kath and the strong feelings they had for each other that had to be hidden due to the homophobia of that time.
Lily is the ‘good’ Chinese daughter. She loves science, but is discouraged from it as it’s only for ‘boys’. Lo does a great job showing readers the struggles Lily has in being true to herself during the 1950s where everyone had to fit a certain role or they were ridiculed or worse.
The strength of this novel is the powerful writing. Beautifully written scenes of San Francisco and Chinatown during the 1950s and the expectations required of all.
Also shown are how childhood friendships can wane in time. For example, there are scenes in which Shirley, a long-time friend, can’t understand Lily’s dreams which include a college education and science. Shirley follows the norms and can’t understand why her friend would want to study math or other ‘boy’ courses.
The historical aspects of this novel are fascinating and add to the story, though it’s Lily’s first love that shines through. That and her courage to not back down on her truth, even when she knows it would be easy to do.
Beautifully written sweet queer love story set in a dark time of our history. But it’s the protagonist’s pushing against societal rigid boundaries and finding her own truth that is the strength of this engaging novel. A must-read for those who want queer love stories that tug at your heart.
2. Courageous tale of being true to yourself
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RUN: Book One by John Lewis
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
First you march, then you run. From the #1 bestselling, award–winning team behind March comes the first book in their new, groundbreaking graphic novel series, Run: Book One.
“Run recounts the lost history of what too often follows dramatic change—the pushback of those who refuse it and the resistance of those who believe change has not gone far enough. John Lewis’s story has always been a complicated narrative of bravery, loss, and redemption, and Run gives vivid, energetic voice to a chapter of transformation in his young, already extraordinary life.” –Stacey Abrams
“In sharing my story, it is my hope that a new generation will be inspired by Run to actively participate in the democratic process and help build a more perfect Union here in America.” –Congressman John Lewis
The sequel to the #1 New York Times bestselling graphic novel series March—the continuation of the life story of John Lewis and the struggles seen across the United States after the Selma voting rights campaign.
To John Lewis, the civil rights movement came to an end with the signing of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. But that was after more than five years as one of the preeminent figures of the movement, leading sit–in protests and fighting segregation on interstate busways as an original Freedom Rider. It was after becoming chairman of SNCC (the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) and being the youngest speaker at the March on Washington. It was after helping organize the Mississippi Freedom Summer and the ensuing delegate challenge at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. And after coleading the march from Selma to Montgomery on what became known as “Bloody Sunday.” All too often, the depiction of history ends with a great victory. But John Lewis knew that victories are just the beginning. In Run: Book One, John Lewis and longtime collaborator Andrew Aydin reteam with Nate Powell—the award–winning illustrator of the March trilogy—and are joined by L. Fury—making an astonishing graphic novel debut—to tell this often overlooked chapter of civil rights history.
The story is complex. Readers see that there was diversion within SNCC, that not all believed in non-violent approach to protest. Lewis gave all he had to SNCC and when he was ousted, he struggled with what to do next. At the back of the novel is a list of key figures during this time. Lewis lived his whole life pursuing voter rights for all. His message is one of not giving up and continuing the fight.
I loved the illustrations and strongly feel this graphic novel should be included in high school curriculums for discussion on civil rights and also equal access to vote for all. The timing of this series is perfect for what our country is dealing with after the Supreme Court’s 2013 repeal of The Voter Rights Act. History is repeating itself again. Only when we know the past are we able to not repeat it.
Strong portrayal of not only a tumultuous time in our country’s history, but the journey of Congressman John Lewis and his persistence to not give up even those around him continued to push back on letting all exercise their right to vote.
2. Mostly though Congressman John Lewis’s story
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ROXY by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman
The freeway is coming. It will cut the neighborhood in two. Construction has already started, pushing toward this corridor of condemned houses and cracked concrete with the momentum of the inevitable. Yet there you are, in the fifth house on the left, fighting for your life. Ramey, I. The victim of the bet between two manufactured gods: the seductive and lethal Roxy (Oxycontin), who is at the top of her game, and the smart, high-achieving Addison (Adderall), who is tired of being the helpful one, and longs for a more dangerous, less wholesome image. The wager—a contest to see who can bring their mark to “the Party” first—is a race to the bottom of a rave that has raged since the beginning of time. And you are only human, dazzled by the lights and music. Drawn by what the drugs offer—tempted to take that step past helpful to harmful…and the troubled places that lie beyond. But there are two I. Rameys—Isaac, a soccer player thrown into Roxy’s orbit by a bad fall and a bad doctor and Ivy, his older sister, whose increasing frustration with her untreated ADHD leads her to renew her acquaintance with Addy. Which one are you?
Issac is the ‘good’ brother, who is on a path to going to a good college. He’s the one that has always looked out for his wayward sister Ivy. One event though tosses stereotypes of who are addicts out the window. The relationship between these two siblings is realistic with how they argue and act like they don’t want to be bothered, but when things go bad, they have each other’s backs.
The Synthetic Gods are based on real drugs. Roxy is OxyContin and Addison is Adderall. There are other gods too like Hiro-heroin, Al-Alcohol, and a number of others. There’s truth in how some of these drugs end up leading users to harder, more deadly ones. There is nothing preachy in this story. What’s hauntingly realistic is how one choice might lead someone down a dark path.
One heart-wrenching truth is revealed by Hiro…
‘…Decisions made in laboratories and secret closed rooms that are our nurseries. Strange to think that the very humans we dominate are also the ones who gave rise to our power…’
Once again The Shusterman’s have a winning story filled with drug gods that play with humans in a deadly game that leads many to unfortunate conclusions. Dark, raw, and realistic this story tackles the drug epidemic that harms not only the victims but those they leave behind.
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AFTER MATH by Emily Barth Isler
After her brother’s death from a congenital heart defect, twelve-year-old Lucy is not prepared to be the new kid at school―especially in a grade full of survivors of a shooting that happened four years ago. Without the shared past that both unites and divides her classmates, Lucy feels isolated and unable to share her family’s own loss, which is profoundly different from the trauma of her peers.
Lucy clings to her love of math, which provides the absolute answers she craves. But through budding friendships and an after-school mime class, Lucy discovers that while grief can take many shapes and sadness may feel infinite, love is just as powerful.
What worked: As someone who lost a sister to gun violence, I felt this novel nailed how people react differently to trauma. What especially stood out to me was Avery and how her fellow classmates shun her at school because she was the half-sister of the shooter. Something similar happened to my own family after the death of my sister. But like Lucy, someone close to us refused to blame the father of the shooter. I love how Lucy wants to know Avery and chooses to be a friend to her. This shows Lucy’s strength and her refusal to judge someone based on the choices of a family member.
Another plus has to be how the author shows how differently people deal with loss. Some might talk matter of factly about it. Some might over-schedule themselves with various activities in order to not remember. And some, like Lucy, want to talk about the loss.
Powerful must-read novel on how a tween, after the loss of her own younger brother, comes to a school where students are still coming to grips with a horrific school shooting. But it’s also a story of hope and the power of love. Books like this, that address the trauma after a horrific school shooting, are needed right now.
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