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iffer 's review for:
Stand Up, Yumi Chung!
by Jessica Kim
I liked this. It had positive messages about learning to be and express your true self. However, it felt like it skews a bit young and/or wasn’t as emotionally nuanced as I might hope for. Many people, Korean-American, Asian-American, immigrant-American, and may recognize Yumi’s strict Korean parents, as well as the way that they push their children to do well in school because they want a better life for them. There is a strong thread of Yumi’s parents sacrificing so that she and her sister can thrive in the US, as well as Yumi and her sister chafing under this pressure. While I found the portrayal realistic, it also felt a little bit two-dimensional and stereotypical due to the lack of nuance and/or writing at a reading level oriented towards 4th-5th readers. This is a book that feels like it could’ve been written and published about a decade ago because it is in line with the white gaze and common second generation immigrant narrative. Alas, publishing and children’s publishing in general, is still so white and so behind the curve, that this book didn’t exist when I was growing up. Now, as and adult, I’m still yearning for more children’s books featuring Asian-American stories with the emotional and intellectual nuance of The Hate You Give, With the Fire on High, etc (though an unfair comparison insofar as these books are oriented towards a YA audience). (To be fair, Listen, Slowly and Front Desk are two examples that come immediately to mind when I try to think of children’s/middle grade books about a nuanced Asian-American experience.)