Parents' Guide to

Finding Junie Kim

By John Sooja, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 9+

Korean American girl fights racism in excellent, bold novel.

Book Ellen Oh Family Life 2021
Finding Junie Kim Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

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age 13+

Based on 1 parent review

BookWormFamily717
BookWormFamily717 Adult
July 9, 2021
age 13+

Good Book, Very Violent

Started reading this with my mature 10year old, we're about half-way through and the wartime violence is too much. A child finds his dead father in a pile of bodies, tortured. While looking for his mother he finds a neighbor who has visible signs of rape (blood running down her legs under her skirt), who says his mother has been intensely injured. There's no way this is OK for 9+.

This title has:

Too much violence
1 person found this helpful.
See all 1 parent review

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?

Our review:
Parents say (1 ):
Kids say (1 ):

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

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