A Sky of Paper Stars by Susie Yi is probably more of a 3.5 than a pure 4 rating as there were a few bumps for me. However, I enjoyed seeing Korean culture, some of it I knew and other aspects new. My unscientific opinion is that probably Korean culture is not known well by the aimed age reader (a stronger 8 to 12). My experience with Asian based characters seems to lean towards Chinese first, with Japanese second, then the people of Taiwan and Korea somewhat tied, and followed by “the rest” of Asian cultures.
Now, I don’t wish to seem flippant about that, but it has just been my experience that most stories forget the perhaps lesser known cultures of Asian people. This is why I enjoyed this book. Yi took her own experiences and shared them with us. As she says in her author note, there were few Asians in her town, let alone Koreans when she was growing up. So, to see her experiences of trying to fit in as “too Korean” for her American peers and “too American” for her Korean family, was enjoyable. The representation of something new mixed with the coming of age aspect which is familiar, makes this relatable to multiple people.
This read via an online reader copy (though currently available) graphic novel was not an OMG BEST BOOK EVER, but it had that something that was different and perhaps a bit more believable. By this I mean, people always seem to have a “fantastic, wonderful, amazing” relationship with their grandparents in stories, but some of us don’t/didn’t. I was close to my paternal grandmother (my maternal one passed away when I was young), but I would come to realize I was a lot like the narrator of the story after she passed, therefore, having that personal connection was good.
As I mentioned, things are based on the author’s own family, life and adventures (plus other peoples stories and a few artistic additions). We see the child of immigrant parents in a slightly new, but also familiar way. It is cute and with bubbly illustrations that make this coming of age and understanding of yourself story “safe” while supporting the seriousness of the text.
Susie Yi is also the author of Cat & Cat Adventures.