It is 1945, and life has been turned upside-down for ten-year-old Sookan and her family. As the Japanese military occupy North Korea, police captain Narita does his best to destroy everything of value to Sookan's family, but he cannot break their spirit. The war ends, but new suppression starts, and Sookan's family knows their only hope is a dangerous escape to South Korea. ALA Best Book for Young Adults. Copyright #169; Libri GmbH. All rights reserved. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

In 1945, 10-year-old Sookan's homeland of North Korea is occupied by the Japanese. Left behind while her resistance-fighter father hides in Manchuria and her older brothers toil in Japanese labor camps, Sookan and her remaining family members run a sock factory for the war effort, bolstered only by the dream that the fighting will soon cease. Sookan watches her people--forced to renounce their native ways--become increasingly angry and humiliated. When war's end brings only a new type of domination--from the Russian communists--Sookan and her younger brother must make a harrowing escape across the 38th parallel after their mother has been detained at a Russian checkpoint. Drawn partly from Choi's own experiences, her debut novel is a sensitive and honest portrayal of amazing courage. In clear, graceful prose, she describes a sad period of history that is astonishing in its horror and heart-wrenching in its truth. Readers cannot fail to be uplifted by this account of the triumph of the human spirit in an unjust world. Ages 10-up. Copyright 1991 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Gr 5-9-- Ten-year-old Sookan tells of her Korean family's experiences during the Japanese occupation as World War II ends. The Japanese commit cruel, fear-provoking acts against this proud, hopeful family and against the young girls who worked in a sweatshop making socks for the Japanese army. Relief, hope, and anticipation of the return of male family members after the Japanese defeat is short lived as the Russians occupy the country, bringing their language, their customs, and communism to the village. Equally as insensitive to the pride and possessions of the Koreans, they are as bad as the Japanese. Plans are made for Sookan, her mother, and younger brother to escape to South Korea. However, their guide betrays them, causing the children to be separated from their mother, and the two begin a daring and frightening journey to cross the 38th parallel to safety. Through Sookan, the author shares an incredible story of the love and determination of her family, the threatening circumstances that they endured during occupations by two totalitarian governments, and the risks they took to escape to freedom. Readers will get a double bonus from this book--a good story, well told, and the reaffirmation of our faith in the human spirit against incredible adversities . -- Lydia Champlin, Beachwood City Schools, OHCopyright 1991 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Gr. 6-10. There's drama but no romantic adventure in this autobiographical novel about a child in war-torn North Korea--first, under Japanese military oppression; then, after 1945, under Russian occupation; and, finally, on the run across the border. The last third of the book is the most gripping, as 10-year-old Sookan, her little brother, Inchun, and their mother flee from their town to try and reach Sookan's father in South Korea. Their guide turns out to be a double agent, and their mother is captured. The two children wander alone through the rain and mud of the rice paddies, filthy, hungry, bruised, sobbing. A few adults help them and show them the way past the dogs and searchlights. To cross the tracks, Sookan and Inchun crawl under a train while it's in the station. To cross a rushing river, they drag themselves across the rungs of a dangerous railway bridge. They tear their backs on the frontier barbed wire. Choi communicates the overwhelming physical experience of these once-protected small children, who find themselves suddenly alone. We feel their dazed terror, their exhaustion and weakness, as well as the astonishing determination that somehow gets them across. A good book to recommend with the Holocaust refugee stories and with Watkins' So Far from the Bamboo Grove , about a Japanese girl's flight from Korea after the war. (Reviewed Sept. 15, 1991)0395574196Hazel Rochman From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.