Danbi Leads the School Parade

June 15, 2020
Introducing an ingenuous girl who has just moved from South Korea to the U.S. with her parents, Kim’s debut radiates positivity, inclusivity, and hope. Danbi bravely enters her classroom on the first day at her new school to encounter a gaggle of staring, curious kids who speak a different language than she does. Though Danbi initially feels excluded when she tries unsuccessfully to join in new activities, her mood soon brightens. When it’s time to open their lunches, Danbi thinks, “That, I knew how to do!” and she shares her meal (“Yams in honey, crystal dumplings,” and more) with her impressed classmates, offering a chopsticks lesson that erupts—joyously—into cacophonous, makeshift music-making and a playground parade. South Korean–born Kim (who, like her heroine, emigrated to the U.S. as a child) offers upbeat illustrations of the children in action, which magnify the story’s high spirits—and Danbi’s triumph. Ages 3–7.