Finding Junie Kim
Parents say
Based on 2 reviews
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this book.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Finding Junie Kim, by Ellen Oh (Dragon Egg Princess), is an excellent middle grade novel about an Asian American girl learning about history, racism, and herself. Half of the novel is Junie's fist-person story in the present, her dealing with daily racist and bullying behavior from some tormentors, recently emboldened by their "MAGA hats and fake news claims." Racist anti-Asian graffiti and swastikas are painted on lockers and fliers on campus many times. The novel unflinchingly shows racist behavior (schoolyard hate crimes) and language ("commie pig," "North Korean spy," "Kim Jong Un," "terrorist," "chink," "dog eater," and "go back to your country"). The other half of this novel is basically the stories of Junie's grandparents and the difficult experiences they endured during the Korean War in the early 1950s, how they met, and why they ended up in America. For older middle graders, this partly historical tale has lots of stories of wartime violence. There are stories of soldiers getting killed, buried alive, shot in the head, stabbed, having their eyes removed, and tortured. There are stories of children being killed (with "bullet holes in their skulls"), men getting beaten, whipped, headbutted, kicked, and punched, American soldiers killing innocent Korean civilians, and a pregnant woman getting shot to death with enemy soldiers "aiming at her swollen belly." Mothers check over dead bodies to see if they are sons or husbands ("bodies that are bloody, faces bashed in"). A 12-year-old girl contemplates eating a handful of Ibuprofen pills. Discussion about suicide and depression follows.
Community Reviews
Good Book, Very Violent
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What's the Story?
In FINDING JUNIE KIM, an Asian American middle grade girl faces racism in her daily school life. She also learns from her grandparents' stories more ways to deal with and resist racism and bullying behavior. With help from her friends, family, and other kids in school that feel the same way, Junie finds a way to change her world.
Is It Any Good?
Definitely more for older middle graders, like its main character, this novel is brave, bold, and unflinching in showing the reality of racism, historically and now. Finding Junie Kim is an important and timely novel that features an Asian American girl lead who starts out shy, depressed, and with little hope, but quickly turns into a story of empowerment, resistance, and finding your own voice. The kinds of racist and bullying language and behavior that many Asian American children must endure daily at their schools can be shocking to many parents, as well as the reasons for why children might not want to talk about similar hardships they face. But this novel also models positive and nonviolent ways of resistance.
The portions that cover Junie's grandparents' stories, their experiences and hardships with racism, communism, and wartime violence, absolutely shine. With these family experiences now within her, Junie finds herself. The journey of claiming identity that Junie takes in Finding Junie Kim is inspiring and, sadly at this point, necessary. It is stories like these, in our own voices, that help to change minds, teach others, and shut down hate.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about violence in middle grade novels. Given that so much of Finding Junie Kim involves wartime experiences, do you think all the violence mentioned and talked about is justified? Why might the author want to not sugarcoat the violence of war?
Discuss racism, racist behavior and language, and the different ways of resistance modeled in this novel. What do you think is most effective and why?
Why was Junie so reluctant, if at first, to open up and talk about her daily experience of being targeted, harassed, and bullied?
Book Details
- Author: Ellen Oh
- Genre: Family Life
- Topics: Activism, Great Girl Role Models, History, Middle School
- Book type: Fiction
- Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
- Publication date: May 4, 2021
- Publisher's recommended age(s): 8 - 12
- Number of pages: 368
- Available on: Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
- Award: ALA Best and Notable Books
- Last updated: February 9, 2022
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For kids who love Asian stories and tales of racism
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