A Step from Heaven

A Step From Heaven

By An Na

AWARDS:

* 2002 MICHAEL L. PRINTZ AWARD
* 2001 National Book Award Finalist
* 2002 Children's Book Award in YA Fiction – International Reading

Na, A. (2001). A step from heaven. New York: Speak.


SYNOPSIS:
This book is organized as a series of vignettes, each one portraying an event or memory in the life of Park Young Ju, a young girl who moves from Korea to America with her parents. The novel spans Young Ju’s life from age four till age eighteen, when she leaves home for college. Essentially, the novel depicts the strain that moving to America has on her family. The Park family has many dreams when they first come to America, but slowly, they discover that life in America (or Mi Gook as it is called in Korea) is much harder than they imagined. Within the book, Young Ju experiences going to school and not being able to speak English or understand the culture. She becomes aware of the very different values and gender roles within each culture. Both her parents have to work many jobs in order to provide for their family. Her father takes life in America the hardest. He feels degraded by the jobs he is forced to do, such as mowing lawns and cleaning offices. He becomes an abusive husband and father, who puts his family through much misery. Although he is abusive, Young Ju’s father has some tender moments—especially early in the novel. Eventually, he leaves his family to return to Korea. Young Ju’s mother is forced to make the difficult choice to stay in American with her two children. Once they are a family of three rather than four, their life seems to brighten; however, this new happiness is bittersweet since they all lost a family member.

The book follows the members of the Park family as they struggle to join a new culture and style of living. All of the members of the family have to redefine themselves according to their new environment. The novel focuses on Young Ju’s journey from childhood to adulthood and features her efforts to fashion an identity out of two cultures. It gives the reader an authentic look into the hardships of assimilation.

EVALUATION:
Liguistically, this book is beautiful and innovative. Na also plays with form and genre ideas in intruguing ways. The characters are highly developed and complicated. The book realistically and thoughtfully portrays the physical, social, cognitive, and emotional development of Park Young Ju. It also portrays issues of poverty and cultural clashes and the ways in which such issues can be further complicated by gender roles. I think this book would be beneficial to ELL learners and for those who live in communities with a high ELL population.

AGE RANGE:
9th - 12th grades

PERSONAL REACTIONS:
Wow, this book is moving! It is also emotionally difficult. Unlike many of the books I read, I found that I could only take this book in small doses. It was just that emotinally draining. This is not to say that the book is too difficult. I think it is well worth the challenge. You may find that younger readers will need more support while reading this book because of the innovative form and language and because of the powerful emotional content. However, I believe this book has a great ability to validate ELL students from many different cultural backgrounds as well as offer perspective to students who do not face the same problems as the Park family. I know it opened my eyes to the hidden struggles that students such as Park Young Ju face every day. Great book!