Girl In Translation - - Not your standard book review!

This is my first contribution to the SV Moms Group Book Club. I would like to preface this post by stating the reviews, which take place for this group, aren’t standard book reviews. These are more about personal responses. I will also write a standard book review in a future post!

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We all have one relation or another to a coming of age story. Everyone faces the stages of maturing complete with our own feats and disappointments. Girl In Translation, by Jean Kwok, made me feel empowered. Kimberly Chang {the main character} channeled to me, “You have the ability to conquer anything!” Ingenious…

Because this story is about an eleven-year-old girl and her mother who migrate from Hong Kong to the United States to live the American dream, I couldn’t help but think about what my grandparents endured in their travels from Belgium to the U.S. back in the 1950’s. They came to live in New Jersey. If you’re familiar with the tri-state area, some of the towns are sectioned off by nationality. My grandparents were lucky enough to saturate themselves with other Hungarians. 

The difficulties of a new culture and the language barrier still existed, but their day-to-day life consisted of other individuals to whom they could relate. I’ve seen the barrier up close and personal when accompanying my grandfather to places like the bank, the grocery store and the drug store. While there are many patient people in America who are willing to take their time to understand what an immigrant is trying to say, there are many who are not. This never seemed to sway my grandfather’s opinion of Americans. What a positive man he was, so much like Kimberly!

Girl In Translation brought many memories of my childhood back to life. I spent endless days and nights with my Hungarian grandparents; eating their cooking, learning of their culture and sometimes, I was even able to crack the code of the language barrier myself. The one between myself and my grandparents, even though I never learned to speak Hungarian, much to my grandfather’s dismay.

Kimberly is still submerged in my thoughts, even weeks after turning the last page. A well told story will be branded in your mind. Girl In Translation will stay within me for some time. For me, it brought back fond memories. Ones that I thought were buried. I am completely okay with that… 

I was provided a copy of this book for the sole purpose of this personal review.