Wait for Me

June 19, 2006
The summer before her senior year, Mina's web of lies begins to unravel. She has led her mother to believe that she is president of the honor society and headed for Harvard, yet she can barely maintain her average grades. Fellow Korean-American classmate Jonathon Kim, her mother's idea of perfection, has been helping Mina in her deception. After a single sexual encounter with Jonathon, Mina realizes she is paying a high price for her charade. When Mexican teen Ysrael comes to work at their dry-cleaning store, Mina immediately feels drawn to him. Finally Mina has found someone with whom she can be completely honest. Ysrael encourages Mina to leave El Cajon and all of her mother's expectations to start a new life with him in San Francisco. When Mina's mother fires Ysrael for something Mina has done, she must choose between her own desires and the responsibility she feels to her family. The drama unfolds in chapters that alternate between the points of view of Mina and her hearing-impaired younger sister, Suna. Mina's first-person voice convincingly describes the impact of the secrets she guards, while the use of a third-person perspective in Suna's chapters underscores the distance their mother keeps from her handicapped daughter. Several secondary themes detract from the main thread of Mina's story, yet Na (A Step from Heaven
) delivers a powerful novel about the pressures of parental expectations and how secrets can tear a family apart. Ages 12-up.

August 21, 2006
Guest gives a sensitive, nuanced performance as Mina, the Korean-American teenager who resorts to lying and doctoring her report cards to live up to the expectations of her mother, whose dream is for Mina to attend Harvard. This spot-on reading conveys Mina's conflicting emotions: fear of being caught in her deception, guilt at knowing that her mother worked hard and sacrificed to give her opportunities, resentment at all the pressure her mother puts on her, and most of all, a deep-seated longing to break free and live her own life. Additionally, Guest is wonderful in the role of the mother, with her heavy Korean accent and bossy nature, and also Suna, Mina's childlike, hearing-impaired younger sister. Children of immigrants will find a kindred spirit in Mina, while most young listeners will relate to the eternal teenage conflict: trying to please parents while finding one's own identity. Ages 12-up.