The sixteen year old Chan Kim moves with his family from Los Angeles to a little town in Minnesota. Chan and his family are Korean-American, something that is new to the almost white little town community. Chan tries to picks up his new Minnesota life by joining the school football team, his way to fit in with his classmates.
Its really hard for Chan and his sister Young (who is a talented flute player and an amazing math talen) to be accepted , and they are really finding out what it means to be Korean in America. Then suddenly their fate takes a really tragic turn..
Necessary Roughness is one of the best ya novels between cultures. Marie G Lee describes the story from the point of view of Chan, and she has written it with lots of humour. You really feel sorry sometimes for Chan because he is trying so hard to fit in, but runs into a wall of misunderstanding from his parents. The end is just really dramatic, but brilliantly written. Go read it!
