Customer Reviews

Kimchi & Calamari

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I first picked up this book because it sounded interesting and because our daughter is adopted and I know eventually she'll come home one day from school with homework on her family tree or heritage. I really liked this book and liked how the main character Joseph did his final paper on how he is a ethnic sandwich... being Korean on the outside and Italian on the inside. I enjoyed learning about Korea, a little about it's culture and the great Olympian Sohn Kee Chung.

This would be a terrific book for adopted children, teachers to read themselves and out loud to their class. As well as for all teachers to realize there are other ways to do the Family Tree / Heritage papers. With Korean children I think that it's neat that there is a way for Korean children to find siblings and parents.

It's tough to be adopted, wondering which of your personality traits and physical characteristics came from someone you've never even met. It's even harder when you're Korean, and your family is Italian-American (including your much younger twin sisters, who are not adopted). To have your social studies teacher go and assign an essay about tracing your family heritage feels like having salt rubbed into a wound. And to have that essay assigned on your fourteenth birthday, well, that's just icing on the cake.

For New Jersey eighth grader Joseph Calderaro, the heritage essay ignites a passion for research into his birth family - a difficult search, given that he was found in Pusan, abandoned by the waterfront in a police station parking lot. The research doesn't sit so well with Joseph's proud Italian-American father, however, provoking family discord and internal conflict. In many ways, Joseph's quest is every teen's quest, to understand where he fits into the world and how he's both part of and unique from his family. In Joseph's case, however, the stakes are higher, and some of the necessary information is missing.

Fortunately for the reader of Rose Kent's debut novel, Kimchi & Calamari, Joseph's cultural identify quest is lightened considerably by being juxtaposed against another important coming of age quest: to secure a date for the Farewell Formal. We also see Joseph goofing around during band practice (he plays the drums), taking care of and being annoyed by his younger sisters, and exchanging jokes with his friend Robyn. These scenes keep Joseph real and accessible for all readers.

One other fun thing about Kimchi & Calamari is that the author sprinkles food-related analogies throughout the text:

"The world is your supersized soda waiting to be guzzled, right?" (Page1)
"Rain sprinkled on my face like salt on french fries." (Page 40)
"... my backpack was soaked and my hair looked like black spaghetti." (Page 41)

And, of course, the primary analogy: Joseph himself as "an ethnic sandwich". Here are a couple of other quotes, to give you the flavor of Joseph's witty personality:

"I hit my mental button to mute the sibling static. I was on a roll, two-finger punching at the keyboard." (Page 83)

"Mom was like a human bridge trying to connect Dad and me. But Dad kept shaking his head -- not angry, because the Mad Meter wasn't running, but not ready to join my search party either. Yet I could tell he was trying, in his Dadish way, to understand." (Page 188)

For kids who are adopted, and/or kids who are struggling with ethnic vs. American identities, this book is likely to resonate strongly. Rose Kent has personal experience with these identity questions through her four children, all of whom have Korean heritage, and two of whom are adopted. This personal experience shows in her understanding of Joseph's feelings, and in the details of the story - the Korean food that another family shares with Joseph, the dynamics of that Korean family, and the physical characteristics that Joseph notes in himself.

I think that Kimchi & Calamari is an excellent read for middle schoolers, boys or girls, Korean-American or not. There's nothing that will be too PG-13 for younger kids, either, though they may be less excited about the Farewell Formal. And for the many kids who are adopted (especially from Korea), the book could be a lifeline. One final point: I do think that this is a book that librarians will need to put directly into kids' hands. It's not obvious what the book is about from the cover (although the cover is cute), and it's particularly not obvious that it's about a middle school-aged boy. I wouldn't expect 12-year-old boys to pick it up off the shelf on their own, but I think that they would enjoy it if you could get it into their hands.

This book review was originally published on my blog, Jen Robinson's Book Page, on November 1, 2007.

Joseph Calderaro is a pretty typical 8th grader. He also happens to be adopted. He was abandoned in Korea as a baby and adopted by an Italian-American family from New Jersey.

When his social studies teacher assigns an ancestry essay, Joseph begins to examine who he is - and to ask questions he has never asked before, questions that his adoptive parents may not be willing or able to answer.

At first, Joseph's parents don't understand his confusion about his identity. After a few struggles, they begin to support his search for his roots.

A sensitive portrayal of common issues faced by adoptive families.

Joseph Calderaro is one mixed-up 14-year-old ever since his teacher asked the class to write about their ancestry. This contemporary book for middle school readers takes a unique look at adoption: Joseph was born to Korean parents and adopted by an Italian-American family. What can he write about? His father urges him to tell about his Italian grandfather, but he isn't exactly Italian. On the other hand, when he meets a woman from Korea who learns that he can't speak Korean, he feels that her hostile look means he's just a "fake Korean."

He asks his mother about his Korean parents, but learns that his adoptive parents were only told the place where he was found. In fact, no one involved in the adoption knows anything about the birth parents.

Now what? Joseph needs to write the essay, but he can't figure out what he can possibly say about his ancestors. He starts reading books on the history of Korea and learns about a Korean hero who ran the marathon at the 1936 Olympics. He had to compete under Japan's flag because Japan had invaded Korea, but even so, he won the gold medal. Joseph is inspired and writes a great essay about him.

And says the Olympic medal winner was his grandfather.

He would have gotten away with it, except his essay wins first place. And the best essay will be entered in a national contest. Even if he doesn't confess to his parents and his teacher, his lie will soon be exposed.

Meanwhile, the books about Korea have made him want to know about his birth parents. One of his friends puts an ad on a Korean adoption website and before long he gets an answer. Can it be he'll soon find out about his Korean parents?

Rose Kent has written an entertaining and thoughtful book about the quandary of the adopted child whose ancestry is different from that of his parents. The writing is bright and humorous, Joseph is appealing, and his friends, his parents, and the prettiest girl in the eighth grade (whom he has a crush on) are all believable.

Joseph Calderaro is an "eighth-grade optimist" whose "bag of barbecue chips is always half full." That is until he has a lousy 14th birthday and his teacher assigns a 1,500-word paper called Tracing Your Past: A Heritage Essay. The only trouble is, Joseph is adopted. Fourteen years ago he was left on the steps of a police station in Korea. His adopted parents are Italians living in New Jersey, and while he knows he's a Calderaro, he feels he can't claim the Italian heritage as his own.

Kimchi and Calamari by Rose Kent follows Joseph as he questions his own identity and struggles to come up with answers about his heritage. Is he a real Korean? Is he Italian? Does it make a difference to him?

I found myself liking Joseph right off the bat. And I loved the assignment he got to write about his heritage. I've done a lot of work tracing my own family's ancestors, so I know that feeling of wanting to identify with the people who came before you. Joseph's desire to know more about where he came from is extra complicated because of his adoption. But I admired the way he treats this issue as just one of many things he's thinking about in life. He is 14 after all, and so he's trying to decide who to ask to the year-end dance. He's also making new friends and trying to figure out how to bring up difficult subjects with his parents.

Through it all Joseph mostly maintains his optimism, even while he gets into and out of trouble. I found myself cheering for him and thinking how refreshing it is to get to know a character who is upbeat most of the time.

Kimchi and Calamari has many things for mother-daughter book clubs to like and talk about. Issues include communicating with your parents, what makes you part of a family, adoption, your family heritage, dating and more. And don't be surprised if you get hungry while reading it. The Italian food and Asian dishes described should offer plenty of ideas for what you can serve at a book club meeting. I highly recommend it for mother-daughter book clubs with girls aged 9 to 12.

Believing that his fourteenth birthday will be the best one yet, Joseph Calderaro will be amazed at how quickly it turns sour.

It all happens during second period. After turning in his project on flag burning, Joseph thinks the assignment will be over, especially since it is May and June is just around the corner. But before the last ten minutes of class is up, his teacher assigns a 1,500-word essay about ancestors. Sure, it may seem like an easy one to write. Not for Joseph, though.

Joseph may have an Italian last name; he is anything but. His parents adopted him when they went over to Korea, and Joseph only knows the Italian side of him, which you could say isn't the true side of him. Adopted at such a young age, Joseph has no idea who his ancestors are or who his birth mother is.

Joseph doesn't mind eating calamari and cannoli frosting on a chocolate cake. He just gets a little uncomfortable when his father wants him to show off their Italian heritage, since is just isn't his.

His journey on writing his essay isn't an easy start, especially since the only help his father can give him is his parent's stories, and Joseph has heard them all.

With ancestors to discover, a girl to win over, a new student who will take him on a journey to discover his heritage, and parents who aren't much help but still love him, Joseph is in for the ride of his life. One that will help him see that being both Korean and Italian isn't bad at all.

Wonderfully written, KIMCHI & CALAMARI will take readers on an adventure that they will never forget. The novel shows how having two heritages is absolutely wonderful and that what matters the most is what we learn from it, how we enrich our lives with it. KIMCHI & CALAMARI is one novel that I will never forget.

Reviewed by: Randstostipher "tallnlankyrn" Nguyen

I read this wonderful book in a few hours and couldn't wait to share it with one of my classes. It is both funny and sad at times. A few tears were shed at the adoption "classifieds," but I finished it with a sense of contentment. A great book. After reading the first chapter, one of my students was so happy that I read a book about another Korean. He couldn't stop saying that he was Korean too.

Rose Kent's new novel, Kimichi & Calamari, is an excellent book on the topic of cultural identity. It tells the story of Joseph, a young boy who was adopted from Korea by an Italian American family. The catalyst for Joseph's struggles is a geneology report assigned in school. We watch as Joseph tries to find a way to fake his way through the report by choosing to write about a famous Korean athelete and pass him off as his ancestor. Along the way his curiousity about his actual birth family grows which leads him to some interesting places.
It is easy to fall in love with Joseph and feel for the predicament he finds himself in. This book would make a great read aloud and discussion book to use with kids in the intermediate grades because the language, setting, and identity struggles are so authentic. Kent manages to teach us all about the struggles of children who are adopted without sounding preachy or condescending. Families formed through adoption should definitely buy this book for Joseph's insight into being adopted alone. Even children who are not adopted can benefit from seeing that they are not alone in asking the age old question "Who am I?". Buy this book!

Life is great for Joseph Calderaro on the last day of his thirteenth year. Then, on his fourteenth birthday, disaster (call it, really, an obstacle) strikes. His writing teacher assigns an ancestry paper--you know, explore your roots. You see, by nurture, Joseph is thoroughly Italian--until he looks in the mirror. Then he sees who he really is--by nature--Asian of some sort, Korean to be exact. Joseph Calderaro is adopted.

"Kimchi & Calamari" is a thought-provoking novel written for the middle school crowd. Who am I, really? What I feel inside? What I see in the mirror? Yes, this is a first novel by a talented writer, Rose Kent, a novel which asks that universal question: Just who am I? On his fourteenth birthday Joseph gets fresh, fried calamari (squid if you don't know), prepared by his Italian-American mom, just-so-fresh. How fresh? Fresh off the dock from a day's fishing--the only and best way to eat squid.

(I ate my first squid at a little restaurant in Venice, supposedly the catch of the day. After reading this novel and the description of its fried calamari, I have mentally backtracked and now know my squid was not caught the day I ate it. It was rubbery! I'm game (ha ha--the pun in that word) for most things, including squid, but not a rubbery substance that wouldn't chew into pulverized bits.)

In his eighth-grade English class his teacher assigns an ancestry paper, a trace-your-roots paper as part of a national celebration and essay contest. Thus begins Joseph's search for his roots, the main problem of this juvenile fiction. Typically, other problems arise--just as in real life. In this case, Joseph wants to ask to the movies the most beautiful, athletic, popular, and rich girl in class, Kelly. Although he is too modest to tell his readers, but Joseph, the first-person narrator, is both funny and popular and cute. Kelly does accept. (But, of course, you are perceptive enough to know that Kelly's "looks" are just skin deep and that he will discover this fact by novel's end. Ah, come on, this is nearly always the outcome of this plot line. Consider this: I'm not telling how.)

His Korean heritage? All he knows is that he was left in a basket at the door of the police station in his home town and adopted when he was a baby. So how does he trace his ancestry without his parents finding out and being hurt by his search? His best friend Nash, a computer guru, volunteers to help him search via the web, where he finds Jae, who might have information about his birth mother.

Although teetering on senior citizen status, I enjoyed this book (as I do most well-written young adult books with interesting plots, characters, and situations. Although light-hearted, "Kimchi & Calamari" does raise a number of serious issues with personal identity as the central one. How DOES a Korean boy by birth discover that identity when he has sensitive, die-hard Italian parents? That, dear reader, is a wonderfully handled problem, and one well worth reading.

Kimchi? Oh yes, the "other" food of the title? Pickled cabbage, a food closely identified with Korean heritage as calamari is with Italians.

"Kimchi & Calamari" is one of the titles on the list of books in the Louisiana Young Readers Choice Award promotion. There are two prongs, this one for grades 6-8. Every state library system is involved in this reading campaign.

Kimchi and Calamari was a wonderful book! I sat down one night around 10, and did not go to sleep until I finished it! I loved Kimchi and Calamari because it reminded me....a resident of NJ, growing up as a Korean Adoptee, and being an adoptee in today's world. I was brought up in an semi-Italian family, however, we never ate Calamari! Not only did I understand what Joseph was going though, but being a Jersey Girl, I loved the fact that the book takes place in NJ, and I also understood the few references to NJ humor.

Kimchi and Calamari is truly a real life story, written from the heart.