Cooper's Lesson
Written by: Sun Yung Shin
Illustrated by: Kim Cogan
Summary: Cooper is a young, biracial Korean American. He struggles with finding his identity as a biracial person and is pulled in multiple directions. His first language is English and knows a little bit of Korean from his mother. After a series of events, Cooper ends up working at a local grocery store owned by Mr. Lee. Cooper does not like Mr. Lee because Mr. Lee only speaks to him in Korean even though Cooper cannot keep up. Eventually Mr. Lee explains in English his own experience coming to America and having to learn a new language. He wrestled through issues of identity as well, although they were slightly different. Cooper comes to understand his identity in a new way through his relationship with Mr. Lee.
Review: I would highly recommend using this book in a classroom and at home to any child. It discusses the complex issues of finding one's identity or identities - an issue that all kids come across in their life. Cooper's experience is more contextualized to his situation, but any child can connect with the themes of feeling misunderstood, importance of honesty, cross-generational relationships, etc. Specifically, however, I think this book would be particularly beneficial for second generation immigrant children. In the book, Cooper does not know who he is or how to explain himself to other, something he finds himself having to do a lot.
Cooper is found caught between two racial identities. To one side of his family, his skin seems so light, but to the other side it is considered so dark. He describes the tension of his biracial identity to Mr. Lee in one of their conversations at the store:
Review: I would highly recommend using this book in a classroom and at home to any child. It discusses the complex issues of finding one's identity or identities - an issue that all kids come across in their life. Cooper's experience is more contextualized to his situation, but any child can connect with the themes of feeling misunderstood, importance of honesty, cross-generational relationships, etc. Specifically, however, I think this book would be particularly beneficial for second generation immigrant children. In the book, Cooper does not know who he is or how to explain himself to other, something he finds himself having to do a lot.
Cooper is found caught between two racial identities. To one side of his family, his skin seems so light, but to the other side it is considered so dark. He describes the tension of his biracial identity to Mr. Lee in one of their conversations at the store:
[Mr. Lee speaking] "...now that I'm a citizen, I'm Korean and American, both."
"I guess I'm both too, but people ask me where I'm from all the time," said Cooper.
"What do you tell them?" asked Mr. Lee.
"That I'm from right here. But then they say, No, where are your parents from? Sometimes I feel like I can't really say I'm Korean if I can't speak the language. But they look at me funny if I say I'm American, even though I am." Cooper glanced back at the photo album. He wondered if people looked at Mr. Lee funny for saying he was Korean and American too.
I love the authenticity of this text and the author's fearless ability to bring up complex issues within a children's picture book. The content is definitely appropriate but also challenging normative views of what it means to be American. This would be an excellent resource to talk through with students, asking them what it means to be American.
I also believe this book would be an excellent resource for children who have had many generations of family living in America or do not have close ties to their ethnicity at all. Just as this story can be a mirror for students to see themselves, it can also be used as a window that allows students to see more of the world that looks different from what they know. This would raise their cultural awareness and competency and hopefully challenge/eliminate the perpetuation of ignorance the book mentions.
The book is written in both English and Korean, although it is very interesting how the two function together. From the surface, this picture book looks just like many other bilingual picture books. The text is written in English, with the Korean translation written directly below it. I think this makes English the more dominant language in the book, but not tremendously so. The reason I think this is interesting is because it reflects the main character's culture. He identifies more strongly as American due to having English as his first language. Although the Korean culture is absolutely prominent in his day-to-day life, it is not what he identifies most strongly with. In this way, it makes sense that the language resembles this pattern in the book. This is not necessarily a good thing, and it probably was not intentionally done either.
The book was written by a biracial Korean woman whose first language is English and she does not know as much Korean. You can learn more about her, as well as the illustrator below:
I also believe this book would be an excellent resource for children who have had many generations of family living in America or do not have close ties to their ethnicity at all. Just as this story can be a mirror for students to see themselves, it can also be used as a window that allows students to see more of the world that looks different from what they know. This would raise their cultural awareness and competency and hopefully challenge/eliminate the perpetuation of ignorance the book mentions.
The book is written in both English and Korean, although it is very interesting how the two function together. From the surface, this picture book looks just like many other bilingual picture books. The text is written in English, with the Korean translation written directly below it. I think this makes English the more dominant language in the book, but not tremendously so. The reason I think this is interesting is because it reflects the main character's culture. He identifies more strongly as American due to having English as his first language. Although the Korean culture is absolutely prominent in his day-to-day life, it is not what he identifies most strongly with. In this way, it makes sense that the language resembles this pattern in the book. This is not necessarily a good thing, and it probably was not intentionally done either.
The book was written by a biracial Korean woman whose first language is English and she does not know as much Korean. You can learn more about her, as well as the illustrator below: