Bookverdict.com

Gr 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...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

The author of this year's Newbery winner turns her attention to a different time period in Korean history. In alternating chapters covering the years 1940 to 1945, young siblings Sun-hee and Tae-yul describe their lives during the Japanese military occupation. Tae-yul admires their uncle, who works for the resistance movement printing an underground newspaper; like Uncle, Tae-yul prefers to take action, and by 1945 the eighteen-year-old finds himself in the thick of things. Younger ...Log In or Sign Up to Read More