Mindy Kim and the Yummy Seaweed Business by Lyla Lee

Daymond is Black most of the cast are people of color. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work! Ho contributes friendly-looking black-and-white illustrations every few pages. Lee also knows when to insert scenes of family love that prevent Mindy’s dad from being defined solely by his grief.

Mindy’s accessible, genuine-sounding voice is sincere without diminishing the gravity of heavy issues. Lee ambitiously takes on a number of issues with a new school, microaggressions, friendships, and grief, and she artfully manages to balance it all.

Just on the verge of settling in, Mindy now must untangle this mess. The evenly paced plot thickens when a disgruntled classmate, a White boy named Brandon, reports Mindy’s forbidden business to a teacher, causing Sally, Mindy, and Brandon to go to the principal’s office. Encouraged by Sally’s enthusiasm, Mindy starts trading her seaweed, then opts to sell it to raise money for a puppy (a long-held dream of hers) that she hopes will alleviate her father’s sadness. The next day a White classmate named Sally tries the seaweed and effectively flips public opinion, making Mindy’s lunch very popular.

The first day at her new school is discouraging, as she is teased for her lunch of kimchi, seaweed, eggs, and rice. On top of that, Korean American Mindy and her father are still grieving the recent loss of her mom from a long illness. Moving from California to Florida is tough. Young Mindy takes an entrepreneurial approach to a new school and a new life.

Mindy Kim and the Yummy Seaweed Business by Lyla Lee