Gigi Shin Is Not a Nerd
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- £9.49
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- £9.49
Publisher Description
This first book in a sparkling middle grade series giving a fresh take on The Baby-Sitters Club follows a young Korean American girl who starts a business with her best friends to support her artistic dreams.
Jiyoung “Gigi” Shin loves to create, from her zany outfits to self-executed haircuts. She dreams of becoming an artist and doodles every chance she gets—at school instead of taking notes, in choir instead of singing, and at home instead of homework. Art is her way of escaping her boring life in suburban Middle of Nowhere, Texas. Unfortunately, her working class, immigrant parents want her to focus on her studies and pursue something more “practical.” Gigi only really feels like herself in art class and at lunch with her best friends, Carolina and Zeina.
When Gigi learns about an elite art camp on the east coast, she’s determined to go. But she knows her parents won’t let her, much less pay for it. After overhearing her little brother Tommy complain about how hard math is and how his teacher goes too fast for him, Gigi has a brilliant idea: forming a tutoring club with her friends to make enough money for the art camp.
With Carolina, Zeina, and Carolina’s friend, Emma, the girls go all in, each with a reason for wanting the business to succeed. But the first few sessions with their classmates are a little chaotic, and Gigi wonders if she will end up sacrificing more than she bargained for to achieve her dreams.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Korean American seventh grader Jiyoung "Gigi" Shin, who lives in Bluebonnet, Tex., has big dreams of following in her aunt's footsteps to become a renowned artist—even if her working-class parents would prefer that she take her math and science assignments more seriously ("Art is just an elective, so make sure to focus on your other, more important classes first"). When she learns about the Starscape Young Artists' Program—a prestigious but expensive art camp on the East Coast where her idol, Korean American graphic novelist Christiana Moon, will be an instructor—Gigi schemes to raise money for the application fee and tuition. With her best friends Carolina Garcia, a Latinx video game enthusiast; hijabi Zeina Hassan, an aspiring picture book author; and book-smart Taiwanese American Emma Chen, Gigi forms tutoring club Ace Squad. But even though the girls initially work well together, Gigi struggles to balance running a new club, keeping her grades up, and emergent friendship troubles with Carolina. Via emphatically depicted character interactions, Lee (the Mindy Kim series) skillfully handles topics surrounding cooperation, financial anxiety, first crushes, and pursuing one's goals in this sweet and wholesome new series. Ages 8–12.
