Almost American Girl: Graphic Novel Project

Chuna is a Korean girl in eighth grade. She lives with just her mom, which is uncommon in Korea. Every year they take a vacation somewhere, and this year they are going to Alabama in America. Her mom says it is to visit her friend who lives there. Chuna loves her comics and has many friends in Korea. She also does not have good English.

After a week of living with her moms friend, Mr. Kim, and his family, Chuna is caught by surprise when her mom gives her bad news. Her mother will be marrying Mr. Kim and they will be living in an apartment close to their new stepfamily. She cried for hours, missing her friends and her comics, and everything familiar to her back in Korea.

Chuna would be starting eighth grade soon in America, and was terrified. Her English was slim, and she knew she would have a tough time making friends. Her step cousins, Ashley and Grace, suggest she chooses an American name to blend in. She was still made fun of for being foreign, and her step-cousins made no attempt to help her make friends.

After finally making friends and feeling more comfortable in Alabama, Chunas mother informs her they are moving away again. This time they will move to Virginia near her mother'scousins are searching for an apartment for them. Chuna is sad she must leave her new friends Jessica and Sarah and the comic classes. But she is starting to learn whyher mother is doing this, to escape the stepfamily and Korea.

After moving to Virginia, Chuna goes to school in Washington, D.C.. There, she meets many other foreign students from all around the world. She also makes friends with the other Koreans in her school. She becomes especially close with two Korean girls, Minji and Soyoung. They all become lifelong friends and share their experiences together.

Many years later, Chuna visits Korea again with Minji and Soyoung and visits her old friends. Going to different places, she feels alienated. Many Koreans liked to look "perfect" and thought they had to look like that to succeed. The longer she stays, the more she feels like a visitor. She realizes that after spending 7 years in America, she is now a Korean-American, and that was okay.