Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

My youngest is as sneaky about finding, reading, and re-re-re-re-reading graphic novels as my second girlie ever was, folks–which is why I’ve got to review A Sky of Paper Stars so that it can go back to the library and GET OUT OF MY HOUSE. (Otherwise she may never read anything else ever again.) I finished it a couple of weeks ago, but now that my oldest is officially done with it as well, it’s ready.

Why my youngest is so taken with it is actually a bit of a mystery to me. Yuna was born in the US, but her parents are Korean, and she’s tired of feeling different–she doesn’t have a phone, isn’t allowed to go to sleepovers, and always has Korean food in her lunches. Her halmoni (grandmother) told her years ago that if she gathered a thousand paper stars together in a jar, she could make a wish on them and it would come true; the morning after she makes her wish, however, she learns that her halmoni has died, and Yuna is certain that her wish is the cause. Can she take it back? To make matters worse, when she and her family are in Korea for the funeral, she realizes that she doesn’t feel like she belongs there, either. I don’t think my youngest is terribly different from her friends, but she is the youngest–the youngest grandchild on both sides, even–and she’s hyper-sensitive about anything she’s not old enough or big enough to do. She’s also prone to emotional outbursts followed by self-recrimination, so perhaps she does feel a kinship with Yuna.

Hmmmm.

In the meantime, I feel like kids with immigrant parents may relate best to this story, but perhaps those who’ve lost a grandparent (or more than one) will as well. My 14-year-old didn’t love it (although of course she read it, because graphic novel), but I’m not sure my 8-year-old even knows how many times she’s been through it at this point. Do with that what you will.