Rating: 
Summary: A Voice To Find
Review: A Voice to Find Finding My Voice is about Myong- Ok (Ellen) who is the only Korean girl in the school. She goes through racism because she is a Korean girl. Ellen has the usual evil enemy, the cute crush and her best friends that help her through high school. Inside Arkin High Ellen gets A's and B's and has the highest classes with a couple of her friends that she knows.
But at home she is different, more perfect. The only reason that Ellen is perfect is because her father. He puts pressure on her to be the best like her older sister, Michelle. Ellen's father often says something like, 'Why can't you be more like your older sister Michelle?' Or 'Michelle got straight A+'s why can't you get them too?'
Ellen's favorite subject is English because she can really express her self in it. But her real passion is Gymnastics. She tries so hard to achieve a star on her jacket which means that she can compete in the regional. Ellen has a hard time trying to do what she likes (Gymnastics) because her father comes in again and says 'If you get lower than an A, you are going to quit the gymnastics team.'
Then in the middle of the story her crush, Tomper, starts noticing her and asks her out. Ellen says, 'Yes'. Since she agreed to go out with Tomper she has to lie to her parents. Will her parents find out about Tomper?
This book really made me think twice about how people might feel if they are made fun of because of their race or culture. I was never really bored but it kind of went slow in the beginning but it soon got fast paced. Like in the beginning it gave a little too much information so I was a little bored. The vocabulary of this book doesn't have large words that you may need to look up in the dictionary. But in the end I would give it five stars! Another book that relates to this book is called Promised Land by Isabelle Holland. It too deals with racism but in the olden days like after the Civil War. By: Harini
Rating:
Summary: A Voice To Find
Review: A Voice to Find Finding My Voice is about Myong- Ok (Ellen) who is the only Korean girl in the school. She goes through racism because she is a Korean girl. Ellen has the usual evil enemy, the cute crush and her best friends that help her through high school. Inside Arkin High Ellen gets A's and B's and has the highest classes with a couple of her friends that she knows.
But at home she is different, more perfect. The only reason that Ellen is perfect is because her father. He puts pressure on her to be the best like her older sister, Michelle. Ellen's father often says something like, 'Why can't you be more like your older sister Michelle?' Or 'Michelle got straight A+'s why can't you get them too?'
Ellen's favorite subject is English because she can really express her self in it. But her real passion is Gymnastics. She tries so hard to achieve a star on her jacket which means that she can compete in the regional. Ellen has a hard time trying to do what she likes (Gymnastics) because her father comes in again and says 'If you get lower than an A, you are going to quit the gymnastics team.'
Then in the middle of the story her crush, Tomper, starts noticing her and asks her out. Ellen says, 'Yes'. Since she agreed to go out with Tomper she has to lie to her parents. Will her parents find out about Tomper?
This book really made me think twice about how people might feel if they are made fun of because of their race or culture. I was never really bored but it kind of went slow in the beginning but it soon got fast paced. Like in the beginning it gave a little too much information so I was a little bored. The vocabulary of this book doesn't have large words that you may need to look up in the dictionary. But in the end I would give it five stars! Another book that relates to this book is called Promised Land by Isabelle Holland. It too deals with racism but in the olden days like after the Civil War. By: Harini
Rating: 
Summary: After reading....
Review: As I am an international ESL student at American University, I usually look up the books about studying English. Actually, this book is the only book which I read whole text since I came to the U.S. Though it made me feel as if I were an elementary or middle school student, this book wasnÕt easy for me because of my poor vocabulary and lack of cultural knowledge. The book includes some small topics, and each person has a strong character which made an interesting story : such as Ellen, Jessie, EllenÕs parents, Tomper, Marsha, Brad, Mike, and so on. I like the story written in detail because we can feel the situation and people more closely. This book handles some issues such as racism, high school stories, culture of Koreans and Americans, and second generation immigrants. Because of many stories in the book, I could not be bored, but interested in the book while I was reading it. On the other hand, this book made me uncomfortable because of some racial views and my identity as a Korean who is the same race as Ellen Sung in the book. I was so sorry about EllenÕs passive behavior until the end of the book when a big event happened with Marsha Randall, who is a kind of racist in this book, of last part. I have never experienced something like what Ellen experienced with race, but if I have a similar situation, IÕll be able to do something more actively than Ellen did. This book was a lot of fun for me to read.
Rating:
Summary: This is a great multicultural book for ages 12 and up
Review: Ellen is a Korean girl who is in for her last year of high school. And she wants it to be a fun one. This is not easy to do, for she is under pressure from her parents who want all Ellen's grades A's or no fun. A friendly girl, yet she is teased by her Asian features, by popular kids in her school. In the end she gets together with a boy named Tomper, who she has secretly liked for a long time. There is also a sequel, Saying Goodbye about Ellen's life in college. Please read them both. They are too good to read only once
Rating:
Summary: Korean American experience
Review: Ellen/Myong-Ok lives a double life: the dutiful obediant daughter of a Vietnamese doctor and immigrant who expects her to go to Harvard as a science major like her bright older sister, and the gynmastics athlete and humanties lover who sneaks out to drink with her friends. When a blonde blue eyed football hero starts to fall for her, it becomes something else to hide, along with the racism she experiences from students and teachers alike.
Lee successfully juxtaposes American and Korean values, and presents a heroine who defines an identity she can remain true to.
Rating:
Summary: Finding my Voice
Review: Finding My Voice Ellen Sung is a great student, but she lives in the shadow of her older sister Michelle, who is a straight A student, and got into Harvard. Ellen has a best friend named Jessie too. Jessie stands up for Ellen if she needs it. Then Ellen meets a boy named Tomper. They soon start to like each other and that makes a girl named Marsha Randel angry. Marsha also likes Tomper and gets a little jealous of Ellen. Marsha hates Ellen, and calls her rude names that have to do with Ellen's Heritage. Ellen is from Korea, although she was born in the United States. Brad a friend of Tomper; also starts to call Ellen rude names. When Tomper finds out what his friend is doing he decides that he doesn't want to be friends with him anymore. Things only get worse with Marsha and Brad's name calling too. I liked this book because it seemed like I was there when Ellen was hit with the bottle. There was a ton of detail and it was an inspirational and heartwarming story. I think that the author made this book to tell anyone who reads it that if you don't stand up for yourself you will have a low selfesteam and you won't feel good about yourself. It also told me that you shouldn't make fun of someone just because they look different from you. I think that anyone, who likes a book about heritage or peoples feelings and about standing up for yourself, will really like this book. It may not have a lot of action in the beginning of the book but it is about a lot of the challenges that are most likely to happen to everyone in real life.
Rating:
Summary: I loved it and you will too!
Review: I normally don't like to read but the cover sort of attracted me. THis is a story about a girl who wants to fit in in high school. The way the author wrote it made everything so real and I wanted to laugh and cry along with Ellen. I think this is a good book for anyone feeling a little "out of it" in school or wherever. Peace!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Successfully Voicing the Korean-American Experience
Review: I read this book when it first came out in 1994, and I still consider it a ground-breaking, moving story that echoed my own experiences as a Korean-American growing up in a largely non-Asian community. Through Ellen, Ms. Lee captured the experience of straddling two cultures, each of which have their own set of norms. I applaud her work in Finding My Voice, and I thank her for helping me find my voice. This book is outstanding, and I wish it weren't out of print.
Rating:
Summary: exellent book
Review: I think this book was very interesting and fun to read about. Not to mention that you would learn something from the book. So for as good and as well written from my opinion, I'd rate this book four stars out of five, because it captured my interest to keep reading and not stop! I liked this book VERY much! The inspiration makes it willing to keep reading on and on, till you finish reading the book. I liked the book so much that I would say it was in the top five best books that I have ever read! This book in a way is some what similar to a book that I read last month called CUTE is a four-letter-word. The comparison between the two books is that both Ellen and Clara were starting out by being made fun of and started getting out of the problem. Soon they found how to make things better, in which they did. My favorite part in the book is when Ellen tries to figures out what she's going to do with her life in the future. She does this by going to the three choices for colleges after she would finish High School! On Spring break she goes to visit the colleges and has her interviews done. Afterwards, when school starts up again, she works her very best greatest to be able to get a great score to be at the best college ever! What do you think will happen at the end? Will Ellen Sung end up getting good grades? Will she get into the college that she wants to be in? If she does got to college, then can she say farewell to her friends, and parents? Find out, by checking in out at your school's library or even go to the public library in your community! Hope you enjoyed reading this!
Rating:
Summary: : )
Review: I'm an international student from Korea. The book itself was interesting and it made me think a lot about Korean people in America because Ellen, who is a main character of this book is from Korean immigrant familly. Through this book, I could see how she has matured in her thinking and I thought about how the Korean people went through their troubles. At the same time, I found the answer to how I can cope with my living situation in America. It was a precious experience for me to read this book.
| 
