A Step from Heaven

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Summary: A Step From Heaven
Review: "A Step From Heaven" by An Na is an outstanding story of a young girl's move to America with her family. Young Ju struggles to grasp the concept of going to heaven. She is under the impression that her and her family are going to heaven by plane, but soon learns that their destination is America.
America becomes the focus of a new start, good and bad, for Young Ju and her family. A new baby brother is born and her father becomes more violent. Also, Young Ju's apa(father) struggles with his alcohol dependancy.
Through her young life, Young Ju begins studying hard, being successful in school, and cooking, while her father works two jobs and her mother works at night.
Life is not always easy for Young Ju. She faces the struggle of keeping her Korean heritage as her parents want her to, and keeping the peace in the family, while blending in with her American friends. These adult responsibility's Young Ju has grow even stronger as she is forced to call the police after a violent attack by her father that threatens her life and her mother's.
Throughout the book, the reader sees the struggle of the family and the growth of a young Korean girl into a strong women. Any reader would be touched through the story "A Step From Heaven."

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Summary: A Review From Heaven
Review: "A Step From Heaven" is about an immigrant family who runs into many incidents in their new life. They need to be American but forgot about their heritage. They had many painstaking situations that overcome by pulling through. We thought the book was a remarkably written because it used accurate and powerful words. At times she used short strokes to express her feelings in a clear way. The book really caught our interest because of the unusual picture of a Korean girl hiding behind a green curtain. The story is about a culture we didn't know a lot about.

Reviewed by: Gloria, Yamel, Charles, Ebony, Rasheeda, Marissa, and Jesse

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Summary: a great book
Review: "In Korean, Mi Gook means 'America.' "

A Step From Heaven first starts off when she is only four years old. Young Ju the main character is a korean girl who moves to america with her family. Her family is a traditonal family in which she finds a different perspective in America. She experiences a lot of new and exciting things. She gets to taste coke for the first time, and gets a perm. Her friend, Amanda, helps her become who she is. All young ju wants to be is an all american girl who can live a happy life. She is also a wonderful older sister to her brother, and only wants the best for him. She also makes her mother very proud. She is intelligent, and receives an award for being the top student in her class. Although her father has problems with drinking, Young ju is very strong. She doesn't understand some problems, but the answers are eventually revealed. Young ju learns to value one penny, because her mother teaches her that one penny can make a difference. Her parents claim that she is becoming " too american " and does not want her to hang out with Amanda, saying that she is a bad influence to her. Young Ju is an innocent girl who only wanted someone to play with and spend time with to have some fun! The book ends as she goes off to college and it proves that she has grown up to become a successful young girl.

I recommend the book becuase it is a funny book. From being koran myself i understand all the same korean traditions. I laugh becuase i know what is going on, and i understand some situations. The book is also very short so it wont take up too much time. For all the readers who don't have a lot of time, this is a great book to read.

Rating:
Summary: Unique and genius
Review: ...This book is great in many aspects. First, it carries a heartaching story of a girl who struggles between two cultures, which is not only Korean American girl's problem, but evolve into every teenagers' problems. Also, the way she structured dialect was genius.

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Summary: Exciting!
Review: A Review by Jackie

If you like a book with a little Korean and American mix then you will love the book A Step from Heaven. Young Ju and her family move to America from Korea and find it difficult to adjust to the way America is and runs, but it is not just America that they are having problems with. To Koreans America means 'Heaven' but when the Park family moves there their whole thought of that meaning totally changed.

I find Young Ju or Ju a very strong girl when it comes to her family and mainly her father. She works very hard on her school work and gets a reward for the highest GPA in her ninth grade class. Ju loves her family and tries her best to keep up with them but with everything that is going on she gets caught in the middle. Apa, Ju's dad, is also a hard working man but there is something about him that changed as they moved to America. Everybody has changed. I didn't like Apa from the beginning. When the book introduces you to him I could tell that the book is having something to do with him.

I recommend this book because it is just a good read. It is not hard and not easy and along the way you learn some of the Korean language. Also if you are just looking for something to read then get this book. This is a book for young and old.

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Summary: A Step From Heaven Captures Your Heart...
Review: A spirited look into the world Korean immigrants. When little Young Ju and her family move to America they begin to realize in this new world life is still what you make of it. Chronicling the life of a young girl as she grows older this wonderful novel has great spunk and amazing heart. Dealing with love and heartbreak and even abuse this book will tug at your heartstrings until you reach the wonderful, albeit a bit anticlimactic ending.

Rating:
Summary: An amazing story
Review: A Step From Heaven is an amazing story of a young 4-year old Korean girl who hardly speaks a word of English but moves to America, where in Korea it has the reputation of being a step from heaven. Throughout the book, Young Ju grows up, developing and maturing with every page. You watch her take baby steps into adulthood starting at age 4 and finishing in college. A Step From Heaven grabbed my attention and held it from page 1 to page 156. It is very beautifully written with obvious skill and passion from the author, displaying an outstanding amount of reality. The book ommits a feeling that forces a tear when she is being abused and a quiver of joy whenever she accomplishes the slightests of acheivments. In just the right choice of wording, An Na protrays a sense of the weak understanding and the dashing mind of a 4-year-old that soon developes into the thoughts of an intelegent young woman with a diversity of understanding of her still newly aquired atmosphere as she guides her parents, who both spent their whole lives in Korea, through the complications of their new lives. A Step From Heaven has definatly become one of my favorite books.

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Summary: It Gave Tears To My Eyes
Review: A Step From Heaven was a pretty good book. Young Ju and her family immagrated to America. ... They have to learn English. Later as Young Ju grows up her father (aka Apa) gets meaner. He got drunk more often and skiped work. AT the end of the book Apa almost KILLS(!) Young Ju's Mom! Luckilly Young Ju calls 911 to save her Mom's life. That gave tears to my eyes. It must be really sad when someone in your family is an alcholic and hurts the other members of his or her family. But don't worry the end is happy. Even though I am 10 this book is sort of inapropriet for me 'cause there's sort of violence but I still read it. I would recomend this book for ages 11 and up.

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Summary: A Book That Reaches Deeper
Review: A Step From Heaven, by An Na, is a great book and an affecting novel. In the book, the main character, Young Ju, moves from Korea to America. She must face all obstacles to obtain a normal, American life. Her father is a very harsh father who makes sexist comments, and strikes her mother, her brother, and her. She learns to be a good student and very good at speaking and communicating in English. Her father only gets worse as she gets older. And only on good days he is a little nice. He was rubbing on her little brother Joon, when she realized her dad was no good for anybody. Young Ju was forbidden to see her best friend Amanda because her father thought she was bad news and way to American, so she snuck out of her house and said she was going out to study but her father saw her. When she got home he started cursing at her and hitting her, when her mother defended her, her father started pounding on her mother. It got really bad and she finally realized her had to call the police or her father was going to kill her mother. Fortunately, she had things better in the end and starts a new life. I strongly recommend this novel.
I recommend this novel because it gives you a large aspect of culture shock. The book gives you a new taste of a new life style. In the book, the main character, Young Ju and her family have a large case of culture shock as well. Like when she first tastes coke, and thinks its like tacks rushing down your throat. Or like when her parents fist heard English, they couldn't believe their ears! They thought everyone was talking crazy or that they were upset. Another reason I recommend this book is that it is not only and interesting true story, but it teaches you a lot. It teaches you what is precious and sweet in your life. Like when Young Ju sees the sweet side of her father, when his mother dies and he fells sorrow and she helps her father cope. That teaches you that even the cruelest people have a sweet sides. This book reaches you on a very deep level.
Even though this is a novel, that in my opinion is good, I wouldn't recommend this book to someone under 9. There is a large amount of cursing, And abuse. Something that might put someone off in this book, is that it talks about things that are very serious in our culture, such as abuse, like that is part of their everyday life. It's sort of confusing, because its so off our base that its hard to fallow. The chapters sometimes leave you hanging and go the next chapter. Those are a few reasons why I wouldn't recommend this book. Although this reason personally didn't affect me. I strongly recommend this book.

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Summary: A step from heaven: A fabulous book
Review: A Step from Heaven
By:Na,An
Reviewed by:d kim
Period 6

This book A Step from Heaven is a fabulous book. It talks about a young korean girl that faces many troubles. Her father abuses the whole family and they are running short on money. Young Ju has to come to America to face her fears and to overcome it. At Korea there are rumors that America is like heaven. There are many jobs that give plenty of money. They come to America and find out it isn't perfect after all.
I liked this book because it shows how life can be for everyone. When they come to America they realize it is a very busy place. They rent a house and the father tries to find a job. Young Ju has to go to school and has trouble learning english. She realizes that America isn't heaven and she wishes she is back at Korea. She knows it is too late and she tries to adjust to the American world.
I also liked this story because it shows how a teenager can cause a positive change by themself. "Apa slams his hand across Joon's face." This shows the father abusing a member. "I pick up the phone and raise it too my ear. "Please," I whisper and take a gulp of air. Send help."" This shows Young Ju calling 911 to get rid of her abusing father.
My favorite part is when Young Ju is only a baby and she is at the beach. Her father was kind and everyone was happy. Her father is heaving her on his shoulder and talking to her. He laughs because Young Ju is afraid of the waves. It reminds me of the beach because I didn't go to the beach for a long time. It reminds me of the cool waves and soft sand.