Unidentified Suburban Object, written by Mike Jung, reviewed by Kalie Mehaffy

Summary: Chloe Cho is a Korean American seventh grader who loves being Korean, even though she is the only Korean American in her town. She is delighted to find out that her new social studies teacher. Ms. Lee, is also Korean. Chloe is also delighted when Ms. Lee assigns the students a report on their family history, since Chloe always wanted to know more about her family history. Unfortunately, her parents find excuses to change the subject every time she tries to ask them about their history. Eventually, her parents can't avoid Chloe's questions any longer, and what Chloe learns shakes her to her very core - it even causes her to fight with her best friend Shelby. Thankfully, Chloe and Shelby overcome this life changing realization together.

Straight Talk for Librarians: This book was an absolute delight to read, and I think it is a great book for a library. The School Library Journal is absolutely correct in their review, the reveal of why Chloe's parents don't want to discuss their past adds a jolt of energy to the rest of the novel, and Chloe's reactions are an amazing representation of a seventh grader reacting to unexpected and life changing news. I think if it were to be used in a classroom, it would be best used as a class read aloud novel to teach empathy, predictions, and to introduce the idea of research projects, as Chloe spend a few chapters doing research in this book. Unidentified Suburban Object by Mike Jung will absolutely be added to my middle school library.