With war looming on the horizon and winter setting in, can two
children escape North Korea on their own?
Winner of the Freeman Book Award!
North Korea. December, 1950.
Twelve-year-old Sora and her family live under an iron set of rules: No
travel without a permit. No criticism of the government. No absences
from Communist meetings. Wear red. Hang pictures of the Great Leader.
Don't trust your neighbors. Don't speak your mind. You are being
watched.
But war is coming, war between North and South Korea, between the
Soviets and the Americans. War causes chaos--and war is the perfect time
to escape. The plan is simple: Sora and her family will walk hundreds of
miles to the South Korean city of Busan from their tiny mountain
village. They just need to avoid napalm, frostbite, border guards, and
enemy soldiers.
But they can't. And when an incendiary bombing changes everything, Sora
and her little brother Young will have to get to Busan on their own. Can
a twelve-year-old girl and her eight-year-old brother survive three
hundred miles of warzone in winter?
Haunting, timely, and beautiful, this harrowing novel from a searing new
talent offers readers a glimpse into a vanished time and a closed
nation.
A Jane Addams Children's Book Award Finalist
An ILA Intermediate Fiction Award Winner
An American Library Association Notable Children's Book
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year
A Junior Library Guild Selection
A Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year
"Will ultimately be recognized as one of the best books... on the
Korean War."--Education About Asia, the Association for Asian
Studies
