Audience Pick!

Title: Girls for Breakfast
Author: David Yoo
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Why I Read It: Because you told me to!

Summary: Korean-American Nick Park just graduated from high school and reflects back on his life.

Stopped on Page: 49
Why I Stopped: I’m on vacation right now, so I’m in the mood for quick reads. This book starts off with Nick graduating from high school, then flashes back to him in third grade. By 50 pages in, he’d only gotten up to recounting his fourth grade experience. It moved too slowly for my vacation mood.

However, I can see why people like it because even in 50 pages, there were tons of jokes. Like when a couple kids at school ask Nick to teach them kung fu, and he’s so desperate for friends that he says yes:

It was so simple. I slapped my forehead. Whoever had invented kung fu had to start from scratch. Same with tennis or making mittens. In order for something to exist, someone had to first create the process. I didn’t know kung fu, but neither did they. I would simply improvise my own version of martial arts. I would make it all up.

A tingling sensation formed at my fingertips. An imaginary warrior now stood before me. I watched in slow motion as the warrior tried to kick me. “Okay, now in the movies they block these kicks,” I whispered to myself. I made a swiping motion with my right hand. I made up rules, and to my surprise they made perfect sense. The key to blocking your opponent’s kick is to move faster than the kick itself.

Maybe I’ll pick this one up again sometime when I’m not in the mood for a plot-driven novel.

Your Turn: Should I have kept going? Or was I right to stop?

Note: As an aspiring author, I respect the extraordinary amount of effort that goes into writing a book. I did not write this review in order to be unfair or negative about the book. My goal is simply to articulate why the book wasn’t for me.

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