Every Falling Star, the first book to portray contemporary North Korea
to a young audience, is the intense memoir of a North Korean boy named
Sungju who is forced at age twelve to live on the streets and fend for
himself. To survive, Sungju creates a gang and lives by thieving,
fighting, begging, and stealing rides on cargo trains. Sungju richly
re-creates his scabrous story, depicting what it was like for a boy
alone to create a new family with his gang, his "brothers"; to be hungry
and to fear arrest, imprisonment, and even execution. This riveting
memoir allows young readers to learn about other cultures where freedoms
they take for granted do not exist.