Erin Yun

It's probably a good thing I didn't know about the Great Expectations angle until after I started reading -- I have terrible memories of that book from 7th grade -- but this book is clever and Pippa is a great character. I'm a big fan of her loving family (even if they have high expectations) and her solid skill with basketball. Friendship drama, some cyberbullying, some poverty shaming. Mother had to return to Korea, Pippa lives in Western Mass with her sister and husband. Very tween coming of age -- making mistakes, learning and taking responsibility. Really well done.
… (mer)

Seventh-grader Pippa Park lives with her older sister, Mina, and Mina's husband, Jung-Hwa. Mina runs a laundromat and Jung-Hwa works at a factory; Mina and Pippa's mother lives back in Korea. Mina is strict with Pippa and has forbidden her to be on Victoria Middle's basketball team this year due to her grades, but when Pippa gets scouted by a fancy private school and her scholarship is contingent on her playing basketball, Mina agrees. At her new school, Pippa tries to fit in with the "Royals," popular girls (some nice, some mean), but soon someone is cyberbullying her. Between that, stressing over her math grades, and worrying that her new friends will learn who she really is, Pippa is struggling - and then her mom is in a car accident.

Pippa makes a series of familiar bad choices. Her motivation for wanting a new life is murky, and her desire to remain friends with the Royals is told more than shown. Nevertheless, this is a worthwhile middle grade story featuring a sympathetic character plunged into a new world.

Quotes

Stereotypes sucked, but sometimes not being able to live up to the stereotype ["Aren't Asians supposed to be good at math?"] felt even worse. (19)

How could Mina forbid me from playing on the team? It was the one thing I was really good at, and she had taken it away from me. (40)

Had that been a successful encounter - or a terrible one? And why was it so hard to tell the difference between the two? (73)

I hadn't exactly lied, but I hadn't corrected people's wrong ideas about me - and it was getting harder and harder to keep the truth hidden.... I'd wanted a different life, but changing myself into the popular, private school Pippa had left me feeling more alone than ever. (146)

...I felt haunted by the sense I was missing out on something fun somewhere. (157)

"Remember...the lower you fall, the more room you have to rise. This will pass, eventually." (Jung-Hwa to Pippa, 233)

...most of what he said was stuff that I already knew deep down. (234)… (mer)