Robin Ha's graphic memoir is a fun read and really connects with both the teen and the immigrant experience. Ha shares her teen years when her mother moved her from Korea to the United States (her mom told her they were going for a visit and they ended up staying.) I loved how the author shared the feeling of not understanding a new language - the speech bubbles were full of squiggly lines for the words that Ha had not understood. Some speech bubbles are all squiggly lines, others have some words in them that she understood but there would be a word that was mystifying to her and she illustrated that word with the squiggly lines. But language was not the only difficulty in the immigrant experience - everything was new - food, clothing, pop culture and of course all of the new people and experiences. I think that we each feel this "newness" of a situation or a place (like going to high school for the first time or enrolling in college) but maybe not as acutely as an immigrant who is immersed in both language and cultures that is very different from what they are accustomed to.
The other part that felt very true to me was that, as a teen, Robin Ha, had very little control of her life. Her mother was making decisions for her that were not necessarily the decisions that she would make for herself. Ha did a really great job of sharing how this impacted her, and at the same time, how she still needed her mom's support both for her physical needs but also for mental support.
Finally, I love all of the Korean culture that this book shares.
This book is a little gem and a really fast read.
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