"Uhmma's hands are as old as sand. They have always been old, even when we were young. In the mornings, they would scratch across our sleeping faces as she smoothed our foreheads, our cheeks, and told us quietly, Wake up. Time for school." Thus begi ns the debut novel by An Na, A Step from Heaven, a "stirring immigration story of Young Ju's coming of age from the time she leaves Korea as a small child until she graduates from high school in America. . . , a universal drama of a family's search for home," as Booklist contributor Hazel Rochman described the book. "I started writing the novel as a way to capture memory," Na told Cynthia Leitich Smith on her "Children's Literature Resources." In the e vent, the book captured more than memory.

This unassuming first novel was the recipient of numerous awards in 2001 and 2002, including the Michael L...