Almost american girl read online free

About the author

Robin Ha grew up reading and drawing comics. At fourteen she moved to the United States from Seoul, Korea. After graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in illustration, she moved to New York City and started a career in the fashion industry. Her work has been published in independent comic anthologies including Secret Identities and The Strumpet, as well as in the pages of Marvel Comics and Heavy Metal Magazine. She is also the author of the New York Times bestselling comic recipe book Cook Korean!: A Comic Book with Recipes. Visit Robin online at banchancomic.tumblr.com.

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What people think about Almost American Girl

4.1

116 ratings / 10 Reviews

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• Robin's mom makes a lot of decisions for her, which she sometimes resents. Like when they go on vacation to Alabama from Seoul and then they end of staying in America because her mom is getting married. She starts middle school not speaking any English in a school without any sort of ELL program. She's deeply unhappy at first but then begins to find her way and connects through her love of comics. But at the same time, her mom's new marriage is falling apart. The art compliments the book with creative use of color whether it is rose-colored glasses symbolism or depicting which language was being used Korean or English.

• Spectacular memoir -- searchingly honest, full of emotion, really beautifully drawn and written.

• I loved this graphic memoir. The art expresses exactly what Robin feels all the way through the book. I think it is amazing to write and do in graphics an honest coming of age story. I read the acknowledgments in the back and I thank Robin Ha's mother for letting this to go forward.Robin grew up in Seoul, Korea, with a single mother. Robin did not find out until later that being a single mother brought much shame from her family and the society. She only had a few memories of her father when she was very little. Her mother was a hairdresser and until she went to school, she thought of the shop as home. When a customer gave her two parakeets, she became attached to them and was shocked when her mother told her that she gave them back to the owner. Robin will get many bad surprises, like when her mother told her that they were going to Alabama for a vacation. When they landed, they were met by a Mr. Kim, and he drove them to meet his daughter and all his brother's family. Her mother went apartment hunting. Boom! Her mother had not told her about her planning to marry Mr. Kim. Kim started back to school in Alabama and was an easy target for bullies at school. She didn't fit in at school. She did not know much English, didn't know how to make friends when she couldn't understand what they were saying. Her only friend was the long neglected Kim family dog. Kim missed her friends back home and the one thing that gave her total escape, her comics.Kim amazes me, I had also moved when I was only thirteen from the city to the suburbs, I felt isolated but of course I knew the language. But the people at the new school, I felt like a stranger there every day. I cried a lot at night in my bedroom and I could definitely know some of what Robin was going through but reading this book, I learned that her experience must have been a thousand times worse than mine.I hope that every one who has to move to a different school reads this book. Parents need to read it too. This book cover what it is like to feel that you do not fit in, Korean traditional values, trust between parent and child, racial prejudice, and so much more. It is a gem of a book.

• Trigger Warnings: Racism, Bullying, Pet Death

  Almost American Girl is a graphic novel memoir about a Korean-born girl, Chuna (Robin) Ha, whose vacation in Alabama unexpectedly turns into a permanent relocation as her mother remarries. Robin doesn't speak English and is dropped into a new school where she doesn't understand much of what is happening around her. Life at home is also rough as she doesn't really fit in with her new stepfamily either. She has no connection to her friends from back in Seoul, Korea and has no access to her beloved comics either. Robin is so lonely.

  This story is so powerful and raw. It really shows the struggle a lot of immigrants have when coming to a new country. On top of those struggles, instead of having a new stepfamily being there to help out and guide you, they do the completely opposite. It was heartbreaking.

  The art of this was colorful and vibrant. I was easily able to keep up with what was happening in the story.

• Oh, my heart ached for Robin and the pain she went through as the "other:" Korean society looks down on her single mother. Her mother moves them to Alabama, away from everything Robin loves. At school, as the only Korean student, Robin endures racism and language barriers. She feels different and excluded by her new stepfamily. Not to mention having to adjust to a new society! It's a gut-wrenching journey that makes the happy ending all the sweeter and fulfilling. Painfully, it brought up memories of immigrant kids from my childhood, who were teased or sat alone. I hope this book inspires young people to show kindness to newcomers.

• My favourite so far...This is the story of a young girl transitioning from life in Korea to life in Alabama in America. Chuna gives herself the American name Robin as an effort to fit in. Still she struggles with change and figuring out where she fits. Sadly even her teachers aren’t much help. My heart went out to this poor lost girl who had no comforts at her new home or school. Everywhere she went she faced hostility and was either taunted or ignored. I don’t know which is worse. The “visit” to Alabama turns into her mother’s decision to marry this ma. 14-year-old Chuna, who thought she was just going on another mother-daughter trip, grapples with culture shock, bullying, and integrating into a new family. Her mother is still her hero, and she recognizes the sacrifices she has made in order for them to survive. It’s rough going though, especially when the rest of the Kims, her new stepfamily, are not in any way supportive. Even though life wasn’t perfect in Korea, where she was bullied for different reasons. China comes from a single parent hone. This is looked on as a disgrace in Korea. One of the reasons Chumash mother wanted to leave Korea was to escape the strict expectations and prejudices that exist in the Korean culture. Now in Alabama, most of the people she interacts with at school are White. Due to this and the language barrier where she receives no help, China is totally alone. It isn’t until her mother reminds her of her love of comics and drawing that Chuna, now going by Robin, begins to thrive. When her mother yet again escapes yet another unfortunate marriage they move to Virginia just outside of Washington. This high school is totally diverse due to the immigrants working in D.C.The coming of age story of Chuna really tugged on my heart strings. I wanted to help her navigate her life and remove some of the struggle. But then as her life evolved the struggles shaped her into the strong woman she became. This is a marvellous Graphic memoir for age 12-adult