Ok Lee and his mother have been struggling since his father died in a freak roofing accident. Ok's mother works three jobs just to make ends meet. Their apartment is filled with the sound of the sewing machine as she sews cuffs on sleeves until they are piled on every surface, and the place perpetually smells of spicy kimchi that she makes daily and sells to friends and neighbors. Ok misses his father and wishes he could find a way to make things easier at home.
When his efforts to sew like his mother fail, he devises a plan to learn how to braid hair like a woman in the neighborhood hoping to make a killing braiding the girls' hair at school. Unfortunately, the girls he knows can only afford to pay him in change so his dream to help his mother quit at least one of her jobs fails miserably.
Things do finally get better financially, but that's because his mother starts dating a deacon from their church. Ok thinks the man tries too hard and when his plan to break up the happy couple fails, Ok moves to plan B which involves saving enough money to buy a tent and supplies so he can run away.
I'M OK takes readers into the Korean culture. Ok, pronounced like Pork, but without the P or the R, deals with multiple problems many of which revolve around the fact that most of the people he knows don't really understand what it means to be Korean. A couple of unexpected friends, Mickey and Asa, may turn out to be accepting and supportive if Ok will just let them in.
Author Patti Kim combines humor, resourcefulness, and determination to create Ok and the people who surround him. I know this reader has a better understanding of what it takes to make kimchi as well as the importance of friendship and family.
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