BookDragon Books for the Diverse Reader

Journey to the East

A single Polaroid captures the day that Katy Robinson’s life changed forever. Her mother’s worried face, her grandmother’s stoic grimace, and Katy’s childishly silly smile mark the day that Katy Robinson left Seoul, South Korea. In 1977, at the age of 7, Kim Ji-yun left Kimpo Airport and arrived in Salt Lake City to become Catherine Jeanne Robinson.

Twenty years later, Robinson returned to Korea in search of her birth mother. When she arrived in Seoul, she found not only answers, but endless questions as well. While the whereabouts of her mother remain a mystery – she might be in Seoul, she might have passed away, she might even be in Chicago – Robinson is in contact with her birth father and half-siblings. She poignantly captures her journey in A Single Square Picture: A Korean Adoptee’s Search for Her Roots, available this month. Already garnering glowing reviews, the title was just chosen by the Chicago Tribune for its summer reading club nonfiction selection.

AsianWeek: Are you still searching for your birth mother?
Katy Robinson: I’m not actively searching for my birth mother now, but am leaving all options open for the future. After the emotionally draining year in Korea, I decided to stop searching for a while. I did, however, leave all of my current contact information with the orphanage in Korea, and feel like I’ve left enough footprints so that my mother can easily find me when she is ready. I have a fantasy of picking up the phone and hearing her voice on the other end. I have no doubt that we will meet one day … [click here for more]

Profile: “Journey to the East: Katy Robinson’s Search for Her Family in A Single Square Picture,” AsianWeek, August 9, 2002

Readers: Young Adult, Adult

Published: 2002