Cooper’s Lesson is an inspiring story about identity and intergenerational friendship, featuring a young biracial boy, written in both English and Korean. Cooper has had about enough of being half and half. And he’s really had enough of Mr. Lee, the owner of his neighborhood grocery store, speaking to him in Korean even though Cooper can’t keep up. Frustrated, he often wonders why things have to be so complicated. Why can’t he just be one race or the other? But one moment in Mr. Lee’s store changes everything. Soon Cooper realizes that the things that make up a person are never simple — whether one talks about them in English or Korean. Richly hued oil paintings and tender vivid prose combine to bring the characters to life.
Related: Bilingual, Fiction, Korea, Picture Book, Primary (ages 6-9)
- ISBN: 9780892391936
- Author: Shin, Sun Yung
- Illustrator: Cogan, Kim
- Published: 2004, Children's Book Press
- Themes: biracial, diversity, Friendship
- Descriptors: Bilingual, Fiction, Korea, Picture Book, Primary (ages 6-9)
- No. of pages: 32
Cooper’s Lesson is known as only biracial Korean-American protagonist book among different contemporary Korean diaspora stories in the U.S. The number of biracial Korean-American may be significantly large in the U.S., yet the fact only one book reflects such experience is quite interesting. Like other biracial children’s books, Cooper also struggles with his identity that is not quite fitting to White side or Korean side. His “half and half” appearance creates such a boundary within himself and enhances internal conflicts about his cultural identity and confidence. Cooper is also conscious about his Korean language skill that he wishes he could speak better. One day his mom asks him to go to a Korean grocery store to buy a comb but Cooper’s language barrier in speaking Korean and frustration with Mr. Lee, the owner of the shop, drives him to shoplift. Mr. Lee caught Cooper’s shoplifting and Cooper is charged to work at the story in return. Cooper slowly constructs a mentor-mentee relationship with Mr. Lee and eventually Cooper learns not only better Korean but also self-acceptance of who he is realizing it is not necessary to fit a box. This book is powerful in a sense that non-parents adult who is not a age group peer joins the journey of discovery of a young child’s cultural identity and makes a connection to the life of diapora in the theme of being in two cultures. Although the title of the book may be misleading the audience as a didactic book, Cooper’s Lesson offers beneficial features of cultural identity, which consumes acceptance, challenge, tension, community support, and agency.