A Step from Heaven

This is the story of a four-year-old Korean girl who moves to the U.S. The story follows her through her going away to college and covers the difficulties she had with the language, the successes she had making friends, and some very terrible family problems which included a drunk and physically abusive father who beat both Young Ju and her mother.

Since it covers a relatively long span of time the sections are basically snippets of what is going on in her life at certain ages.

It's a fairly interesting book, but I think because it covers so much time in her life that it never really develops a particular focus. She has, of course, problems adjusting to American culture, but that's something seen in lots of other books. The terrible abuse she and her mother suffer at the hands of her father is a very strong point of the story and basically dominates the rest of the events in the book.

So, it's an ok book, but not really outstanding in any particular way.

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