Cooper's Lesson »

Cooper's Lesson is an inspiring story about identity and intergenerational friendship, featuring a young biracial boy, written in both English and Korean. Cooper has had about enough of being half and half. And he's really had enough of Mr. Lee, the owner of his neighborhood grocery store, speaking to him in Korean even though Cooper can't keep up. Frustrated, he often wonders why things have to be so complicated. Why can't he just be one race or the other? But one moment in Mr. Lee's store changes everything. Soon Cooper realizes that the things that make up a person are never simple — whether one talks about them in English or Korean. Richly hued oil paintings and tender vivid prose combine to bring the characters to life.

Publishers Weekly

First-timer Shin tells the story of a bi-racial boy's misstep, and the resulting unlikely friendship with a dour grocer. Establishing Cooper's circumstances with care, Shin draws an uncertain child with a foot in two worlds, one whose Korean grandmother remarks on his pale coloring and freckles, while his white grandmother says, "What brown skin!" Always an anxious visitor at the neighborhood grocer's, Cooper dreads Mr. Lee and his customers, who all speak Korean, and expect the same from Cooper. "The Korean writing on the cans and boxes seemed to dance off the labels.... He looked at Mr. Lee and thought to himself, Why don't you speak English to me?" Unfortunately, the illustrations, by first-timer Cogan, lack the clarity of the text; muddy colors and stiff shapes prevent the pictures from conveying Cooper's feelings. In a critical moment described by Shin with close attention to the emotions that typify children's misdeeds, Cooper steals a hairbrush for his mother. The unexpected compassion the grocer shows the young shoplifter and the growth of Cooper's first friendship with another adult (besides his mother) who speaks Korean provide a satisfying conclusion. Text appears on each page in English, with the Korean below it; Korean dialogue sprinkled through the English text emphasizes the boy's frustration at being unable to communicate. While the story will have most resonance for those struggling with a second language, the themes of wrongdoing and reparations will speak to all children. Ages 6-up. (Feb.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.