Stand Up, Yumi Chung!

Stand Up, Yumi Chung!
By Jessica Kim
New York: Kokila, 2020. J Fiction, 306 pages.

At school Yumi Chung is a shy loner. At home she's constantly compared to her genius older sister Yuri. And between her after-school study class and working in her parents' Korean barbecue restaurant, she feels a lot of pressure to succeed. But alone in her room, Yumi writes down her problems and turns them into jokes. She dreams of becoming a standup comedian, a goal that feels impractical while her family struggles to keep their business afloat. When Yumi stumbles into the Haha Club one day and meets her idol, YouTube comedian Jasmine Jasper, Yumi Chung sort of kind of accidentally becomes...Kay Nakamura, who is a lot more confident than Yumi ever felt when she was being herself.

Yumi's double life helps her gain her own confidence and start overcoming her fear of failure but the secrets and lies start to complicate things, forcing her to ask the question: “What does it mean to follow my heart, anyway? What if pleasing my parents and wanting to do comedy are both pieces of my heart?” Stand Up, Yumi Chung! is the perfect mix of funny, honest, and hopeful, great for any reader who liked Front Desk by Kelly Yang.

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