Seoul Food

Seoul Food is delightfully sweet and delicious story of family, love, culture, and food, featuring diverse characters and bringing two very different cultures together to form a happy family.

The creativity of this story is excellent. Hana is presented with a tough situation and uses her heart to create a delicious meal meshing her two backgrounds together, Black and Korean.
There is wonderful representation of some of the similarities among the differences between the two cultures.

The backmatter contains definitions and pronunciations for some of the words used in the book, as well as the recipe for Hana's delectable dish, kimchi gumbo.

The artwork is beautiful. There is so much movement and expression in each character. I love seeing the family interact, especially the father doing his daughters hair.

Seoul Food would be a great way to introduce and teach children about different cultures.
I would recommend Seoul Food to children aged four and up who love cooking and those who come from biracial families.

Hana is a biracial girl from both Black and Korean cultures. Because of the differences, she doesn't always get to see both sides of her family. But when her mother announces that the grandparents on both sides will be coming for dinner, Hana wants to cook the best meal for them. However, nothing feels right even though her parents tell her to go with her heart. In the end, she decides to combine both cultures to create a delicious meal that she hopes everyone will enjoy.

SEOUL FOOD features diverse characters as it brings two very different cultures together to form a happy family. Hana is a very relatable character who just wants to make the people she cares about happy and proud, just like any other child. Food has always been a great way to bring people together. Hana's idea is perfect since it comes from her heart while blending and celebrating both cultures. There's even a recipe for the kimchi gumbo in the back of the book for children to make with their parents which sounds like a tasty bonding moment.


Final Verdict: I would recommend this to children aged four and up who love cooking and those who come from biracial families. It's also a great way to introduce and teach children about how some people have different cultures and that's okay.