A Letter to My Best Friend

An uplifting story about a child newly arrived in America from Korea learning a new language to keep in touch with an old friend, a cat named Oto.

Jihun, whose family recently moved to the United States from Korea, receives a class assignment to write a letter to his best friend but he’s not sure how it will turn out. First, he's just learning English. Second, he doesn't have any friends in America yet. What's more, his best friend back in Korea can’t read—because Oto is a cat!

Fueled by wonderful memories of his former home, Jihun uses his artistic creativity to transform letters of the English alphabet to make a drawing of Oto. The V’s are like his pointy ears and the I’s like his long whiskers! The resulting "letter" is hailed as extraordinary and opens a door for Jihun to make friends at his new school.

Yangsook Choi is the author and illustrator of many celebrated picture books, including The Name Jar and Peach Heaven, and Janet Wong’s This Next New Year. Born and raised in South Korea, she now divides her time between New York and Seoul