The Noh Family by Grace K. Shim

 

All Chloe Chang, 18, knows about her father is that he died in a car accident before she was born, and her mother refuses to talk about him, and she just assumed there were no relatives on the Noh side of her family. So when her two best friends, Seb and Hazel, give her a DNA kit as a joke because of her resemblance to their local TV weatherman, Ted Takahashi, no one was surprised when the results showed Chloe to be 95% Korean. After all, both of her parents are from Korea.

Chloe, Seb and Hazel have just graduated from high school, and while Seb and Hazel are having elaborate family parties to celebrate, Chloe is home alone. Her mother is a nurse and often works double shifts. Money is tight in the Chang household and though Chloe's dream is to study at Manhattan's Fashion Institute of Technology, where she has been accepted,  she will be going to the local community college instead in her Oklahoma hometown. 

But when Chloe gets a message from Noh Jin Young through 23andme.com, everything changes. Jin Young claims they are first cousins. At first skeptical, Chloe realizes that DNA doesn't make mistakes and she must indeed be related to him. Not only that, but there is a large extended family in Korea and Chloe is related to them all AND they are the wealthy owners of a successful high end department store. 

Naturally, when the Noh family offers Chloe a trip to Korea to meet her, she jumps at the chance, but doesn't mention any of this to her mother until the last minute. Her mom isn't happy about all this, but can't stop Chloe and after all, it's only for a week. 

But what a week it is, beginning with a first class flight to Seoul, South Korea, Chloe is soon thrust into what feels like a fairytale life when she meets her Halmonie, and a bunch of cousins, she is even settled into a guest house with a personal chef. But as the week progresses, and despite the access to family, meeting Miso Dan, who turns out to be a good friend, having access to all kinds of lovely clothing she could only dream about before, and the promise of paid tuition to FIT, something dark begins to creep into Chloe's consciousness. She is not simply there to meet her long lost family, they want something from her which required taking a DNA test to find a match. Now, all she wants is to go home to her mom and get away from her controlling Halmonie and the rest of her newly found family.

The Noh Family is Grace Shim's debut novel and based on the Korea dramas (K-dramas) that she used to watch. I know that the long lost family trope is pretty much overdone, but the fact that Chloe is Korean and the story plays out in Seoul makes all the difference. Although the fashion part of the story didn't do much for me, I did love the descriptions of Korea, its people, culture and food. I gave the book to my Kiddo to read because she has been to Seoul and loves it. She is also into K-dramas, so I know that she enjoyed that aspect of the book a lot, especially the description of the Dramatic Pause. 

I did find the story a little slow in places, but not enough for me to put the book down. Chloe is a nice, but headstrong character, and I wondered how she could simply take off on an international adventure so quickly and with little thought that there could be danger ahead. On the other hand, having watched her friends enjoy some of life's luxuries that she has been deprived of, including family and having a more accessible mother, makes Chloe's impulsiveness feel appropriate for her age. 

This is a fun, if predictable coming-of-age story and one I had a particular interest in - I, too, had a surprise in my DNA.

Thank you, Layne Mandros at Books Forward for providing me with a copy of this book for review purposes. 

King Sejong Invents an Alphabet by Carol Kim, illustrated by Cindy Kang

 

King Sejong Invents an Alphabet by Carol Kim,

illustrated by Cindy Kang

Albert Whitman & Company, 2021, 32 pages

This is the story of a king who loved books and reading so much he wanted to share that love with all the people in his kingdom. But how could he do that when Korean had no alphabet?  Born in Gyeongbakgung Palace in 1397, as a boy, Yi Do loved to read. And he was lucky, because only those who were a members of the royal court could learn how to read, because that required knowing how to read and write Hanja, the complex Chinese characters that were used in Korea because there was no Korean alphabet. Unfortunately, that meant that most people in Korea could not read since learning Hanja required time and money.

Even after his father hide his books, young Yi Do was overjoyed to find one book that had been missed. He loved books and learning so much that he read the missed book over and over. Years later, his father realized how valuable his son's love of learning was, believing it  would make him a good leader and chose him to be the next king at age 21, changing his name to Sejong. After an unfortunate incident between a father and son,  Sejong had a book printed and given out all over the country in an effort to teach the people to honor their parents. But no one could read the book because no one knew how to read Hanja. 

Dismayed, Sejong realized that what Korean needed was its own alphabet instead of the complex Hanja characters. But how does one invent an alphabet that would match the spoken Korean language and be easy to learn? And how to do it secretly since the yangban or ruling class didn't want to give any power to the people or sangmin class.

Sejong spent many years working in secret on a Korean alphabet and finally in 1443, he released an alphabet of twenty-eight letters, which was later called Hangeul or "the great script." And yes, the yangban did protest the use of the alphabet, but now that they could read, imagine how much the lives of the Korean people were improved. All thanks to one young boy's love of books, reading, and learning and wanting to share that.

King Sejong Invents an Alphabet is a deceptively simple yet very informative biography of both King Sejong and the Hangeul alphabet. Coupled with Carol Kim's engaging text works in harmony with Cindy Kang's colorfully detailed illustrations that reflect Korean life in the 15th century. 

Back matter includes more information about the Hangeul alphabet and why it is an ingenious design, its fate after King Sejong died and the long journey to its acceptance, as well as Selected Sources and Source Notes.

This is an excellent book to include in diverse libraries, whether public, school or home libraries. 

Thank you, Edelweiss+ for providing me with a digital ARC of this book.