What’s Eating Jackie Oh? by Patricia Park
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Patricia Park has created a fabulous book that brings together food, family, expectations, aspirations, stereotypes, and prejudice. I fully enjoyed this novel on a lot of different levels.
The main theme is about a girl being true to herself even when it means doing something that her family doesn’t necessarily approve of. Jackie Oh is Korean, which has the unspoken understanding that her parents expect her to have a high GPA and career aspirations. But what Jackie really wants is to be a chef, to feel the joy that she has when working in her grandparents’ diner. She struggles to care about school and risks it all when an opportunity arrises to audition for a teen cooking challenge. During the interview process and on the challenge itself, she has to question who she is and what kind of chef she wants to be. There is an implicit expectation that she cook “Asian” and that she act a certain way. We have all faced stereotypes, but these expectations and, at times, rude comments begin to tear her down.
I loved the intergenerational relationships in this story as well as the generational trauma that faces many families, especially immigrants. I remember dealing with my grandparents’ behavior after living through the Depression and how it colored everything they did.
I was surprised by how it brought in the hate crimes that happened post-Covid to the AAPI community. That said, I think it is important for that to be acknowledged and for a wider swath of people to understand it. As May is AAPI Heritage Month, this is coming out just in time to be fully celebrated at that time.
This is a wonderful book for high school libraries.
Thank you to NetGalley and Crown Books for the eARC is return for an honest review.
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