Almost American Girl is the true story of Korean-American writer and illustrator Robin Ha. The story shows all her struggles and her life with her single mother.

I loved this story. It was well written and illustrated a lot of emotion, especially as the story of a young teenager. This was a beautiful, heartfelt story that really shows the struggles of an immigrant as well as just being a teenage girl.

I think a lot of students can relate to it whether or not they are an immigrant. The author shows struggles she’s faced with herself, her mother, her so-called cousins, and even kids at school. Robin Ha experiences racism and bullying for the first time in America and the way she handles it really is a strong inspiration for students everywhere. She sticks up for herself while barely knowing the language.

Throughout this story, we hear a lot about the issues she faces and how she deals with them. Yet on the other hand, we  also learn about  the good things she finds that she’s never looked at before. She makes friends with people based on her love for comic books and art.  She develops a crush and even though she doesn’t end up with him, she finds the happy ending that we all look forward to in a book.

In the beginning of the book, she is just visiting America but then she gets news that she’s going to live there forever. She is devastated and results in a lot of fights with her mom. In the end of the book when she goes back to visit Korea, she sees why her mom chose to move. The biggest reason was sexism.

She makes friends that are also Korean-American and they become super close. They go through hardships together, have fun together and eventually grow into adults.

Even now as adult, Chuna (Robin) Ha kept the one thing she loved no matter where she lived, art.