My Korean diaspora bibliographies include books I found while searching for Korean American children’s literature. Inclusion in this list does not indicate that I consider them accurate or aesthetically remarkable portrayals of the Korean diaspora. In the spirit of access, open discussion, and faith in your commitment to critical inquiry, I include all books in my master list.
ALA Family Literacy Focus Talk Story: Sharing Stories, Sharing Culture, a joint project of the American Indian Library Association and the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association, and partially sponsored by the ALA Family Literacy Focus Initiative by 2009-2010 ALA President Dr. Camila Alire.
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November 21, 2009 at 11:24 am
2worlds1family
Sarah,
Since the lists above include all of the books you’ve considered, I would love to know which books you consider the best ones for children adopted from Korea–both adoption books and books about Korea or Korean families.
Our family owns many of the books included on your lists. But so far we don’t have an adoption book that we just love, although as I’ve noted on my blog our animal-loving son is partial right now to Little Miss Spider and A Mother for Choco. I agree that most adoption books are two simplistic and gloss over the hard parts of adoption.
So I’m looking for recommendations. I would love to hear your thoughts on the best books out there for families like mine.
Thanks!
November 23, 2009 at 7:18 pm
Sarah Park
Hello there. Honestly, I’m not terribly excited about any of the books about Korean adoption. I think Rose Kent’s Kimchi & Calamari come the closest to what I would consider an adoptee’s perspective. From your comment that you like Little Miss Spider and A Mother for Choco, I’m guessing your children are still young, and I think the picture book about adoption are very simplistic. Tall Boy’s Journey starts to get at Moo Yong’s perspective, but there are other problems with the book, such as the scene where he “karate kicks” a door. Moo Yong is Korean, not Japanese. The Coffee Can Kid is a warm story, but there are some issues with that one as well. What’s interesting about it is that the story focuses on the father/daughter relationship, whereas most adoption stories focus on the mother/daughter.
Which Korean adoption stories do YOU like?
March 17, 2010 at 11:56 pm
LindaV
Hello, Sarah. Just want to stop by and thank you for all of your help and encouragement with the presentation. We all greatly appreciated your suggestions. Thanks, again.