Krista Kim-Bap by Angela Ahn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
When I was in the grade school, we studied our heritage, just as Krista does in this middle-school book. And like Krista, we were encouraged to study our cultural history through food. We were all supposed to bring in recipes from our family that were part of our heritage. My heritage was half Italian and have British. But, my father, like the parents in this book, who are first generation born in their country, do not speak to the language of their parents. Thus, like Krista, I did not know Italian, in her case Korean, and so felt closer to my British heritage. So, while all the other kids were brining in strange and exotic recipies, I brought in one for fruit cake. My teacher though I had misunderstood the assignment. She kept saying, bring in something from my heriatage, and I’d tried to explain to her that I had.
She sent me back to try again.
I told my mother, the British side of my family, what had happened, and she realized the teacher wanted something Italian, despite the fact that none of us ate anything more Italian than pizza, and so gave me a receipt for eels in wine sauce.
The teacher approved.
Krista, in this book, does not have this problem, because her grandmother is still alive, and actually wants to help her learn to cook Korean.
But this book is not just about Krista learning how to cook Korean food. This is a fish-out-of-water story. A girl whose best friend is a boy, and how doesn’t understand the girls in her class, not because she is Korean-Canadian, but because she doesn’t understand girls in general.
And it takes her grandmother to help her with the assignment, and with the understanding.
It really is a sweet story, and I am so glad that Krista showed how eating Korean was important to her heritage and who she was.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.