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A review by anxiousdaydreamer
The Color of the Sky Is the Shape of the Heart by Chesil
3.0
Thank you to the publisher and my library who gave me a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Spoilers below:
This story is about 17 year old Ginny Park, a student in Oregon who is a Korean who was born and raised in Japan. She's about to get expelled from school, again, and she is given three days to decide if she wants to be expelled or start participating in school.
She begins to recount her experiences that led her here, from her homestay mom Stephanie trying to meet her where she is emotionally, to the emptiness she felt in Hawaii before moving to Oregon. Then she goes back to her life in Japan when she began going to the North Korean school. She suffered bullying event after bullying event from both Koreans and Japanese.
The premise of this memoir is great. I would have liked more details. As an American who hasn't researched much of the tensions between Japan and North and South Korea, I really wasn't the target audience for this book. Has it born a desire in me to learn more? Yes, it has.
There were several strong positives in the story I liked. The first was Ginny's friend Maggie who was Deaf. I loved the Deaf representation! I loved that two kids on the outskirts of their school find such deep friendship with each other and that Maggie didn't want to give up on their friendship even if Ginny was forced to go back to Japan.
The other positive was Stephanie. I loved how she was trying to love Ginny in her own way and how she genuinely wanted to give Ginny the space to grow and be herself.
I give this story three stars. I think having more details would have given this book more life.
Spoilers below:
This story is about 17 year old Ginny Park, a student in Oregon who is a Korean who was born and raised in Japan. She's about to get expelled from school, again, and she is given three days to decide if she wants to be expelled or start participating in school.
She begins to recount her experiences that led her here, from her homestay mom Stephanie trying to meet her where she is emotionally, to the emptiness she felt in Hawaii before moving to Oregon. Then she goes back to her life in Japan when she began going to the North Korean school. She suffered bullying event after bullying event from both Koreans and Japanese.
The premise of this memoir is great. I would have liked more details. As an American who hasn't researched much of the tensions between Japan and North and South Korea, I really wasn't the target audience for this book. Has it born a desire in me to learn more? Yes, it has.
There were several strong positives in the story I liked. The first was Ginny's friend Maggie who was Deaf. I loved the Deaf representation! I loved that two kids on the outskirts of their school find such deep friendship with each other and that Maggie didn't want to give up on their friendship even if Ginny was forced to go back to Japan.
The other positive was Stephanie. I loved how she was trying to love Ginny in her own way and how she genuinely wanted to give Ginny the space to grow and be herself.
I give this story three stars. I think having more details would have given this book more life.