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Reading level: Ages 9-12
Paperback: 208 pages
Publisher: Yearling (February 13, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0440419441
ISBN-13: 978-0440419440
1940: Sun-hee and her older brother Tae-yul live in Korea, which is under Japanese rule. Korean customs and traditions are forbidden by law. As the family struggles under these conditions, World War II comes to the region, and with it the life-and-death decisions of wartime.
Jane Addams Children's Book Award Honor
Publishers Weekly Best Books of the
Year
School Library Journal Best Books
of the Year
ALA Notable Books for Children
ALA Best Books for Young Adults
NY Public Library Best Books for the Teen Age
and 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing
Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best
IRA Notable Books for a Global Society
starred reviews: Kirkus, Publishers
Weekly, School Library Journal
Junior Library Guild selection, spring 2002
"This
beautifully crafted and moving novel...expands readers' understanding
of this period."*
From Kirkus Reviews (starred review):
The author of three novels set in different periods of Korean
history (A Single Shard, 2001, etc.) now turns to WWII for
the story of a brother and sister and their lives with their
parents and uncle. Telling their story in alternating voices,
the two siblings offer complementary and sometimes different
versions of events. Sun-hee, in the last year of elementary
school in 1940, loves studying and is an obedient daughter
while older brother Tae-yul loves speed and machines. Their
uncle is a source of concern because he publishes an underground,
anti-Japanese newspaper. The Japanese had conquered Korea
in 1910 and as the war looms their demands on the Koreans
intensify. Food grows scarcer and the Koreans, long forbidden
to study their own culture and language, now must take Japanese
names. Thus Sun-hee becomes Keoko. In one memorable passage,
Sun-hee misunderstands an oblique warning from her Japanese
friend and assumes that her uncle's life is in danger. He
flees, never to be seen again as the war and the post-war
communist government in the north keep them apart. This beautifully
written story captures these events through the eyes of a
very likable young girl. In her voice, readers share the joys
of playing cat's cradle, eating popcorn, and tasting American
chewing gum for the first time. Through Tae-yul's they experience
his gritty determination to join a kamikaze unit in order
to protect his family from the suspicious Japanese. There
is food for thought when Sun-hee's father tells her that "they
burn the paper-not the words" when referring to the Japanese
soldiers who destroy her diary. There have been relatively
few stories for young readers that are set in Asia during
WWII. Thispowerful and riveting tale of one close-knit, proud
Korean family movingly addresses life-and-death issues of
courage and collaboration, injustice, and death-defying determination
in the face of totalitarian oppression. (afterword, bibliography)
(Fiction. 10-15)
Amazon.com
Inspired by her own family's stories of living in South Korea
during the Japanese occupation in the years preceding World
War II, Newbery Medal-winning author Linda Sue Park chronicles
the compelling story of two siblings, 10-year-old Sun-hee
and 13-year-old Tae-yul, and their battle to maintain their
identity and dignity during one of Korea's most difficult
and turbulent times. In alternating first-person chapters,
they relate their family's troubles under the strict fascist
regime. The Kim family is stripped of their cultural symbols,
only permitted to learn Japanese history and language, and
forced to convert their names to Japanese. Sun-hee, now Keoko,
struggles to reconcile her Korean home life with her Japanese
school and friends, while Tae-yul, now Nobuo, attempts to
convert his growing anger into a more positive passion for
flight and airplanes. Both are worried for their uncle, whom
they discover is printing an underground Korean resistance
paper. When Sun-hee inadvertently puts her uncle's life in
danger, she sets in motion a chain of events that results
in her brother volunteering as a pilot for the Japanese near
the end of WWII. While Sun-hee and her parents wait in breathless
uncertainty to hear from Tae-yul, the war rushes to a close,
leaving Korea's destiny hanging in the balance. This well-researched
historical novel is accompanied by a thoughtful author's note
that explains what happened to Korea and families like the
Kims after WWII and a bibliography to entice interested young
readers into learning more about a topic largely unknown to
American audiences. (Ages 10 to 14) --Jennifer Hubert
From Publishers Weekly (starred review):
A brother and sister alternate as narrators in Newbery Medalist
Park's (A Single Shard) well-constructed novel, which takes
place from 1940-1945 in Japanese-occupied Korea. The Japanese
government forbids the Korean language to be spoken and the
country's flag to be flown, and even forces Korean families
like Tae-yul and Sun-hee's to change their names (Sun-hee
becomes Keoko). Through the use of the shifting narrators,
Park subtly points up the differences between male and female
roles in Korean society; and the father's process of choosing
the family's Japanese name speaks volumes about his strength
and intelligence. As the war intensifies, each family member
asserts his or her individuality, from Sun-hee, who continues
to keep a journal after a soldier calls it "a crime against
our Divine Emperor," to her uncle, who prints a revolutionary
newspaper in hiding, to Tae-yul, who joins the Japanese army
to avoid helping the military police capture his uncle only
to be chosen as a kamikaze pilot. The son comes to an understanding
of his father rather abruptly at the novel's close, and some
readers may wonder why Tae-yul was not labeled a chin-il-pa
("lover of Japan" ). But, in the end, telling details
provide a clear picture of Sun-hee and Tae-yul and their world.
Readers will come away with an appreciation of this period
of history and likely a greater interest in learning more
about it. Ages 10-14.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal (starred review):
Grades 6-9--Living in Korea in the 1940s was difficult because
the Japanese, who occupied the country, seemed determined
to obliterate Korean culture and to impose their own on its
residents. Sun-hee and her older brother, Tae-yul, still go
to school every day, but lessons now consist of lectures and
recitations designed to glorify Japan. To add to their unhappiness,
everyone, adults and children alike, must give up their Korean
names and take new Japanese ones. Sun-hee, now called Keoko,
and Tae-yul, newly named Nobuo, tell the story in alternating
narrative voices. They describe the hardships their family
is forced to face as Japan becomes enmeshed in World War II
and detail their individual struggles to understand what is
happening. Tension mounts as Uncle, working with the Korean
resistance movement, goes into hiding, and Tae-yul takes a
drastic step that he feels is necessary to protect the family.
What is outstanding is the insight Park gives into the complex
minds of these young people. Each of them reacts to the events
in different ways-Sun-hee takes refuge in writing while Tae-yul
throws his energies into physical work. Yet in both cases
they develop subtle plans to resist the enemy. Like the Rose
of Sharon tree, symbol of Korea, which the family pots and
hides in their shed until their country is free, Sun-hee and
Tae-yul endure and grow. This beautifully crafted and moving
novel joins a small but growing body of literature, such as
Haemi Balgassi's Peacebound Trains (Clarion, 1996) and Sook
Nyul Choi's The Year of Impossible Goodbyes (Houghton, 1991),
that expands readers' understanding of this period.
Barbara Scotto, Michael Driscoll School, Brookline,
MA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.