Author: Rose Kent
Enjoyment Rating: ****
Source: Library Copy
Books I've read this year: 93
Joseph is turning fourteen, and not exactly sure how he fits in his New Jersey family, who with their big hair and their goat horn necklaces sound like they could be extras on The Sopranos. You see, Joseph is Korean, and his parents adopted him when he was an infant. An essay assignment about his heritage gives him a bit of an identity crisis-- he knows nothing about his Korean past, but writing about his Italian family feels disingenuous. His parents are reluctant to talk to him about his adoption both because they feel such a strong identification with their own culture and because they don't want Joseph to feel diminished in his role in the family.
There are lots of picture books about adoption for international adoptees. I have a whole shelf of them to read with Rose when she grows up. I think that Kimchi and Calamari works really well for preteens, the kids who have cut their teeth on I Love You Like Crazy Cakes, but who now need to have an understanding of their identity and to come to see that sometimes their parents' motivations for being less open than they would like are because they don't have the answers or they don't want to confront the issues themselves. It's a nice, well-written story for any preteen, but I think it's one that I will slip into Rose's hands about ten years from now.
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