Reviews

Excellent, excellent book about a war that, as the author points out in her postscript, doesn't get a lot of attention from the media or history classes.

dutifuldoe's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional slow-paced

4.0

valeria14vq's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

lydiagordon02's review against another edition

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3.0

+12-13 There loads to uncover with this one... Parental abuse (mostly emotional), Death and grief of a loved one, starvation, and all the gore and pain that comes with war.

This book held me captive for the first half. Having these two small leads forge their way to South Korea alone brought out my overprotective nature. I wanted them to be safe, sound, and fed yet, none of that was happening for these poor children. The premise is what excited me the most. I cannot tell you the amount of historical fiction that I've seen that is strictly about WWI OR WWII. This historical context excited me the most, and while the book delivered on that aspect. Characters were something completely different.

The family dynamic was so heartbreaking to read. It just did not fit well, but I feel as if this will be said to be the cultural differences. I won't say anything about that since I'm not educated on North Korea families enough to say whether or not it was done well. All I can say is that it was really hard to read as the reader.

I will say the last half of the book started to really drag on, and then of course the ending... (If you read this, you know what I'm talking about) It felt unsatisfying and honestly I had no clue this story was going to be this deep. I would say if you want to let your child read this, read it with them and then have discussions about all these mature topics! It will help them understand the realities of history and wars, in general. Just be prepared to be sad.

cozylifewithabby's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

This book was inspiring, heart breaking, and informative. The language is easy as it is a Middle Grade/YA, but the story is important as it combines different people's real experiences in the Korean War (including the author's mother) into a fictional narrative of a young girl and her brother.

Content Warnings

yannahg's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

jojo_bookish_mojo's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad

Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

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