Mindy Kim and the Yummy Seaweed Business

by Lyla Lee, Dung Ho (Illustrator)

Overview

Fresh Off the Boat meets Junie B. Jones in this first novel in an adorable new chapter book series about Mindy Kim, a young Asian American girl who is starting a snack business!

Mindy Kim just wants three things:
1. A puppy!
2. To fit in at her new school
3. For her dad to be happy again

But, getting all three of the things on her list is a lot trickier than she thought it would be. On her first day of school, Mindy’s school snack of dried seaweed isn’t exactly popular at the lunch table. Luckily, her new friend, Sally, makes the snacks seem totally delicious to Mindy’s new classmates, so they decide to start the Yummy Seaweed Business to try and raise money for that puppy!

When another student decides to try and sabotage their business, Mindy loses more than she bargained for—and wonders if she’ll ever fit in. Will Mindy be able to overcome her uncertainty and find the courage to be herself?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781534440098
Publisher:	Aladdin
Publication date:	01/14/2020
Series:	Mindy Kim , #1
Pages:	96
Sales rank:	794,986
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	640L (what's this?)
Age Range:	6 - 9 Years

About the Author

Lyla Lee is the author of the Mindy Kim series as well as the upcoming YA novel, I’ll Be the One. Although she was born in a small town in South Korea, she’s since lived in various parts of the United States, including California, Florida, and Texas. Inspired by her English teacher, she started writing her own stories in fourth grade and finished her first novel at the age of fourteen. After working various jobs in Hollywood and studying psychology and cinematic arts at the University of Southern California, she now lives in Dallas, Texas. When she is not writing, she is teaching kids, petting cute dogs, and searching for the perfect bowl of shaved ice. You can visit her online at LylaLeeBooks.com.

Dung Ho was born and raised in Hue, Vietnam, where she studied graphic design at the Hue University College of Arts. After graduating, she worked in the design and advertising industries before discovering a great passion for illustration and picture books and becoming a freelance illustrator. Currently, she lives and works in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. Ho draws inspiration from nature and the interaction between people and nature and especially loves to draw children. When not drawing, she enjoys cooking and watching movies.

Editorial Reviews

★ 2019-10-09
Young Mindy takes an entrepreneurial approach to a new school and a new life.

Moving from California to Florida is tough. On top of that, Korean American Mindy and her father are still grieving the recent loss of her mom from a long illness. The first day at her new school is discouraging, as she is teased for her lunch of kimchi, seaweed, eggs, and rice. The next day a white classmate named Sally tries the seaweed and effectively flips public opinion, making Mindy's lunch very popular. Encouraged by Sally's enthusiasm, Mindy starts trading her seaweed, then opts to sell it to raise money for a puppy (a long-held dream of hers) that she hopes will alleviate her father's sadness. The evenly paced plot thickens when a disgruntled classmate, a white boy named Brandon, reports Mindy's forbidden business to a teacher, causing Sally, Mindy, and Brandon to go to the principal's office. Just on the verge of settling in, Mindy now must untangle this mess. Lee ambitiously takes on a number of issues with a new school, microaggressions, friendships, and grief, and she artfully manages to balance it all. Mindy's accessible, genuine-sounding voice is sincere without diminishing the gravity of heavy issues. Lee also knows when to insert scenes of family love that prevent Mindy's dad from being defined solely by his grief. Ho contributes friendly-looking black-and-white illustrations every few pages.

A lovingly authentic debut that shines. (Fiction. 6-9)

Kirkus Reviews

01/01/2020

Gr 1–3—Seven-and-a-half-year-old Mindy Kim and her dad have moved from California to Florida in the wake of her mother's death. Mindy is not excited about starting at a new school. All her friends are back in California, but Mindy is determined to form a new social circle. When she shares her yummy seaweed snacks, she discovers lots of kids suddenly want to talk to her. Her excitement only builds as she and her newest friend develop plans for a snack business. But when things do not go as planned and Mindy lands in the principal's office, will she be able to find any new friends? Reminiscent of Barbara Park's "Junie B. Jones" series but with more emotional depth and life lessons effortlessly woven throughout, this first installment of a new series deals with grief, loss, and how to right a wrong. The slightly smaller type and higher-level vocabulary will appeal to young readers seeking a little more of a challenge than the typical early chapter book. The discussion of Mindy's experiences as a young Asian American student, including bringing 'different' food to lunch and how she looks different from her classmates, is a welcome and necessary perspective. VERDICT A solid choice for incorporating advanced vocabulary into early chapter book collections.—Emily Beasley, Omaha Public Schools

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