Celebrating AAPI Heritage Month 2022 

My broth­er gave my first born daugh­ter this won­der­ful pic­ture book on her one year birth­day,  or “Tdol” in Kore­an, a huge mile­stone and cel­e­bra­tion in Kore­an cul­ture. Bee-Bim Bop!, with its catchy, rhyth­mic text and warm water­col­or illus­tra­tions, imme­di­ate­ly became one of our fam­i­ly’s favorite books. We read it so often, we quick­ly had the words mem­o­rized, and we would chant the words every­where we went. For me per­son­al­ly, as a Kore­an Amer­i­can who grew up in the 70’s and 80’s, see­ing a fam­i­ly like mine depict­ed in the pages was thrilling. Even the inclu­sion of every­day, ordi­nary items, like the rice cook­er, the slip­pers, and the long-han­dled spoons and chop­sticks gave me such a thrill and a feel­ing of val­i­da­tion. Plus, the most amaz­ing part is that there is a recipe includ­ed at the end for Bee-bim bop! I wish there had been a book like this when I was my daugh­ter’s age.