This picture book is a rare gem! The bright and bold illustrations with the right details--like actual words on notebooks, not just squiggly lines--enrich the fun text of little Yoomi learning to like kimchi. She overcomes her older brothers calling her a baby because she can't eat the spicy Korean staple. Grandma asks Yoomi to help make a special dish with kimchi in it. We see Yoomi bravely take a bite of it with her brothers watching, waiting to tease her. But, she surprises everyone, including herself, by enjoying it. It's a universal coming of age story with a fresh cultural twist. The terrific end-papers of vegetables in the front of the book and the Korean dishes they're used in on the back are a delight. Also, the author-illustrator, Aram Kim, shares her mother's kimchi pancake recipe. This is a wonderful book for both classrooms and homes to explore family relations, culture heritage, and developing a taste for kimchi (or other unique food)!
Their grandmother announces lunch featuring delicious Korean dishes while Yoomi and her brothers play. Yoomi enjoys grandma's dried seaweed, soft egg omelets, and even the seasoned bean sprouts, but she does not like "stinky spicy kimchi!" Her older brothers, Jun and Yoon, won't let her play with them because she's too little; "big kids eat kimchi." Despite trying various ways to mask kimchi—like on pizza or over ice cream—it is the kimchi pancakes that the child and her grandmother make together that delight Yoomi. They are delicious, enjoyed by all, and elevate Yoomi to big-kid status. The Korean family is depicted as personified cats reminiscent of the feline in Kim's first picture book, Cat on the Bus. Illustrations created in pastel and colored pencil are detailed but uncluttered, expressive, and childlike. In addition to a recipe for kimchi pancakes, beginning endpapers depict the vegetables from which kimchi is made while closing endpapers show different-plated kimchi. Verdict This fun and engaging story about food, family, and tradition is broadly appealing as a read-aloud or read-alone selection
Biography
Aram Kim is a NY-based children's book author/illustrator and a picture book designer. She was born in Ohio, spent her childhood in South Korea, and now lives in Queens, NY. She likes bringing in distinctive South Korean flair to works she creates. Aram is a huge advocate for diversity in children's literature, and a creator of Multicultural Children's Book Day 2018 poster. Her debut picture book Cat on the Bus (2016) was included in Children's Choice Reading List by ILA/CBC. Her second picture book No Kimchi for Me! (2017) is a Junior Library Guild selection, Bank Street College's Best Children's Book of the Year (2018), and 2018 A Baker's Dozen: The Best Children's Books for Family Literacy by The Pennsylvania Center for the Book.
Aram has been invited to numerous book festivals and events to read and to talk about her creative process. She also holds workshops for people who want to start their own children's book
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