This book was very interesting to read. It was very surprising to see two different languages written on every page because have not really read this kind of book before. I was able to relate to this story because not only I am Korean, but I was able to relate to the story about the part where Cooper struggles to learn his native language. English was not my first language, and I went through all the arduous situations to learn English. I think this book will provide interesting and relatable story for Korean-American students and other multicultural students. Also, it not only helps them to relate, but they may also be able to check if they understood the story by reading the Korean version of the story if they are Korean. Therefore, I will use this in my classroom, so that children can build more knowledge about how difficult learning a new language is, and learn about the ways to overcome the language barriers. ( )

I really liked how throughout the entire book, there was a Korean version of the same text. The book could be read in either Korean or English. This was extremely clever because the story is about a boy who is half Caucasian and half Korean. He struggles with his Korean side because he cannot understand nor speak the language well. I can relate to this because I grew up learning both English and Vietnamese. There are several different dialects of Vietnamese so when I talk to other people outside of my family, it can be very difficult to understand them. This book teaches the boy to have confidence and to embrace his culture and language. I think it is important for children to develop relationships with the older generation so they can learn to appreciate their history and who they are. This book also gave me some ideas of what my children's book can be about. ( )

I liked this book for a few reasons. First I liked that the story was told in both English and Korean. Cooper the main character is an Asian-American who speaks English while his mother and other members of the community speak Korean. During the story Cooper makes a mistake and ends up having to pay for it and tell the truth. This task is harder than it seems but in the end Cooper learns his lesson and words hard, he ends up enjoying the work. The illustrations of the book are creative, and show the setting well. I’ve never seen a book that is written and displayed in 2 languages before so I felt like that made this book unique and interesting. ( )

This book is about a boy named Cooper. Cooper is Korean and so is his parents. Cooper's mom wants Cooper to go to Mr. Lee's shop to buy ginger. Cooper hates going to Mr. Lee's shop because Mr. Lee always speaks in Korean and Cooper does not speak Korean well. When Cooper goes to Mr. Lee's shop he tries to shoplift. Mr. Lee catches Cooper shoplifting and as a punishment Mr. Lee makes Cooper work in his store and Cooper learns more Korean.

I liked this story because I thought it was a very relatable story. The character of Cooper was well developed and students would be able to see traits of themselves in him. Cooper was sick of being called “half and half” because he was both Korean and American. He wished that he could be just one race, and things would be a lot simpler. He really wasn’t able to identify with either race. I am sure some students have felt similar feelings of not belonging. They want to find somewhere they feel that they can fit, but that can be difficult sometimes. This story will help students to realize that there it is okay to identify with different races, it may just make you well-rounded. Another aspect of the story that I liked was how multicultural it was. All of the text in the book was in both English and Korean. This helped to enhance the book because it made it available to many more people. Now students from two different languages would be able to access the story. The writing of the story was well paced and engaging. When Cooper stole the hairbrush there was a moment of suspense, which only engaged the reader further into the story. Another aspect that was intriguing was when the reader found out that Mr. Lee knew English. This turn of events allowed the story to be more engaging for the reader. This also makes the character more developed. Bilingual students will be able to relate to this character, and this will also make the story more interesting for readers. This book does push readers to think about a difficult concept that they might not have thought about before. The difficult concept is that some young students might have identity issues that teachers need to be aware of. Cooper was already struggling with getting bullied for his identity, and he was having a difficult time associating with either race. Through this book readers are able to see what some individuals have to endure just because of who they are. This gives readers a new perspective on why we should accept people for who they are. The big idea of the story is that you do not have to be just one race, or culture. You can be a mixture of multiple and still have an identity. Students will learn that they don’t need to be confined to just one heritage or another. ( )