A young Korean girl survives the oppressive Japanese and Russian occupation of North Korea during the 1940s.

This is book meant for high school. I would use this to teach about WWII and oppressive leaders. Some of the themes in the book are too grown up for what I would want to use in a classroom that wasn't high school+; such as sex slavery, war camps. ( )

A haunting tale of Japanese-occupied Korea, and one family's attempt to survive political upheaval. ( )

historical fiction, WWII, Korean occupation by Japanese and then Russian. Told from one family's point of view.

Times are tough for 10 year old Sookan and her family. They live in North Korea, and their region has been taken over by the cruel Japanese military during WWII. Close to starvation, the residents work to the bone and are constantly terrorized. Their possessions have been taken and destroyed, along with their traditions. Sookan has to go to a Japanese school where she will get in trouble if she speaks Korean. When the war ends, things don’t improve. Now the Russians have moved in, and brainwash residents into a revival, asking for converts to Communism, and to report anyone who speaks against the regime. Sookan and her remaining family members make plans to sneak away to the south, where they think Sookan’s father must be. This account, based on the life of the author, is full of the horrible details of war – oppression, starvation, death, loss, and seemingly no hope. Readers will hold their breath to find out if Sookan and her brother make it through the barbed wire fences and into South Korea!