Debut author Jane Bahk introduces a charming young heroine with an imagination that helps her deal with her best friend leaving the neighborhood.
After Juna's family empties the large jar of kimchi, she gets to keep it, and it becomes a vessel for flights of fancy. Juna and her best friend, Hector, use it in the park to capture a caterpillar. Felicia Hoshino's (A Place Where Sunflowers Grow) soft watercolor illustrations depict a diverse, thriving city neighborhood with small vibrant shops, people and pets. One morning, Hector isn't there when Juna goes to visit. His Abuelita takes Juna in her arms to tell her that Hector has moved away with his parents. Juna wasn't home when he came to say good-bye. The look in Juna's eyes expresses her profound sense of loss at Hector's departure. Her big brother, Minho, helps fill this void by buying a fish for her kimchi jar. While everyone else sleeps, "Juna put on a diving mask and fins and dove into the water." A Van Gogh–esque perspective of Juna's room gives way to an underwater scene of her swimming with her fish. Hoshino's playful approach makes clear what's real and what's in Juna's imagination.
The jar becomes a bean plant–turned-jungle, then a home for a cricket that takes her on a ride through the night sky, to Hector's house. The trip assures her of Hector's well-being, and opens her up to the prospect of a new friend by story's end. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness