Dad proposes to Julie at the end of the book.

Understanding the trivia questions alone would have been hard. In real life, in my generation at least, most of the immigrant parents wouldn't have been able to communicate in English anywhere near the ability of Mindy's dad's level. In this case, Mindy and her dad devise a strategy where Mindy will handle the American cultural stuff and her dad will handle the math and science questions, which is such a great approach. In these situations, the child feels like they have to make up for the difference, sometimes covering for their parents. There's also the issue of having an immigrant parent whose English is not their first language and knowledge of things American is not vast. Mindy doesn't talk about these but just the fact that she wants to win to prove a point says something. I like how the story addresses some of the feelings that come with that, which in reality could be insecurity, inferiority, or just anxiety about being different.

Coming from a single parent home, her dad is a widow, Mindy's family doesn't look like her friends'. There are some good issues addressed in this short book. As an immigrant, Mindy's dad's knowledge of American history or pop culture isn't great. There's a trivia contest at school and the winner gets a year's worth of free pizza! Mindy really wants to win that pizza but more than anything, since it's a trivia game of families, she wants to win to show everyone that her single parent family (her and Appa), is just as good as anyone else's.

Mindy kim and the big pizza challenge