Brother's Keeper

by Julie Lee

Overview

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

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823444946
Publisher:	Holiday House
Publication date:	07/21/2020
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	396,366
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Julie Lee, a marketer-turned-writer, lives in an Atlanta suburb with her three children and her husband. A first-generation American, her mother escaped North Korea during the Korean War and later immigrated to the United States. Her debut, Brother's Keeper, which was based on her mother's experiences, received the Freeman Book Award and was named a Jane Addams Children's Book Award Finalist. Julie studied history at Cornell before working in advertising in Manhattan, eventually relocating to the South.

Editorial Reviews

★ 06/01/2020

Lee’s urgent debut begins at the outset of the Korean War as experienced by 12-year-old Sora Pak, only daughter and eldest of three, who lives in communist North Korea. After learning that the North and South are at war, the Paks, terrified by the prospect of a continued life under communism, flee in the dark of night for the Southern city of Busan, nearly 400 miles away. A bombing soon separates Sora and her eight-year-old brother, Youngsoo, from their parents, and the children must make the unknown journey on their own. Sora’s responsibility to Youngsoo grows fraught when he becomes ill, and she fights to care for him under increasingly impossible conditions. Sora, who yearns for an education as much as she longs to be valued as an individual by her family and her culture, is a compelling and sympathetic narrator whose deep love for Youngsoo is mixed with resentment at his revered status as a son. Her anger at her beleaguered mother whom she can never please is also a source of grief. A moving, suspenseful refugee story, based loosely on the author’s mother’s experiences, the book is at heart a poignant exploration of a girl’s struggle against traditional female roles and her determination to succeed on her own terms. Ages 8–12. (July)

Publishers Weekly

★ 06/01/2020

Gr 3–7—A harrowing, heartbreaking tale of hope, love, and survival against insurmountable odds. Twelve-year-old Sora and her family live under the oppressive North Korean communist regime of 1950. As the South Korean army begins to lose ground to the Red Army, hope of liberation dwindles. Sora's stubborn, overbearing mother believes the family should keep their heads down and obey the law. But her father knows that their family's nonconformist political and religious beliefs mean they will never be safe, and convinces the family to flee south to Busan where his brother lives. Whip-smart Sora hopes that Busan will provide freedom from her mother's restrictive expectations of her as a woman and enable her to return to school. The family embarks upon the long journey by foot, but are separated in a sudden aerial bombardment. Sora and her eight-year-old brother Youngsoo must now attempt to complete the journey alone in hopes of reuniting with their family. They face threats at every turn—the elements, other people, lack of resources, and illness—but their strength carries them even as Youngsoo becomes ill. With an artful and expressive narrative voice, and inspiration drawn from her mother's experiences in Korea as a young woman, debut novelist Lee enthralls and enlightens. VERDICT A surefire recommendation all around, this title will be of particular interest to readers seeking excellent historical fiction, survival stories, family drama, or a good tearjerker. Librarians and teachers should be aware that a character suffers a protracted illness and then dies from pneumonia.—Darla Salva Cruz, Suffolk Cooperative Lib. Syst., Bellport, NY

School Library Journal

★ 2020-03-15
Sora is 12 when she and her younger brother trek hundreds of miles to safety during the Korean War.

In the summer of 1950, the 38th parallel is closing, separating North and South Korea. Those caught in the northern part of the country will live under a Communist regime, full of harsh regulations, limited freedoms, and indoctrination. The novel, told in three parts, begins as the Pak family finally decides to escape to Busan, a city on the ocean at the southern tip of the peninsula—370 miles away. Almost immediately, Sora and 8-year-old Youngsoo are separated from their parents. Basing her story in part on her mother’s own experiences in North Korea, debut author Lee paints this gripping and emotional midwinter escape with the eye of a wartime journalist and the determined heart of a young girl. As Youngsoo weakens from hunger and sickness, Sora carries him for the rest of their journey, across frozen rivers and through dangerous cities, past the front line. Flashbacks to her family’s experiences during the Japanese occupation of Korea provide Sora strength and comfort and provide additional context for readers. Sora struggles against the Korean cultural norms of male supremacy, the low status of girls clear from her mother’s constant verbal abuse. Still, she rises.

A journey of wartime survival parallels the strength Sora needs to fight for her own dreams. (author’s note, photographs, glossary, maps, timeline) (Historical fiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews

Winner of the Freeman Book Award
A Jane Addams Children's Book Award Finalist
An International Literacy Association Intermediate Fiction Award Winner
An American Library Association Notable Children's Book
An American Library Association RISE Selection
A Booklist Lasting Connections Selection
A Booklist Top 10 First Novels for Youth Selection
A Virginia Reads Selection
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year
A Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year, with Outstanding Merit
A Junior Library Guild Selection

"In its portrayal of hardship and survival, Brother's Keeper joins a rich tradition of stories about children on wartime journeys."—The Wall Street Journal

★ "An amazing debut and an important book."—Booklist, Starred Review

★ "Debut author Lee paints this gripping and emotional midwinter escape with the eye of a wartime journalist and the determined heart of a young girl."—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
 
★ "A harrowing, heartbreaking tale of hope, love, and survival against insurmountable odds. . . . With an artful and expressive narrative voice, and inspiration drawn from her mother's experiences in Korea as a young woman, debut novelist Lee enthralls and enlightens." —School Library Journal, Starred Review
 
★ "A moving, suspenseful refugee story . . . the book is at heart a poignant exploration of a girl's struggle against traditional female roles and her determination to succeed on her own terms."—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

"Overlapping historical accuracy with personal testimony, Lee presents a nuanced story of strength, tenacity and everlasting family bonds."— Shelf Awareness

"The narrative makes a painful reality of the deprivation that people faced when fleeing their homes . . . At its heart, Brother's Keeper is about families and how they overcome hardship and loss. The Korean War and Korean culture act as a powerful setting for this work, and the strength and sorrow of Sora and Youngsoo are haunting." —Foreword Reviews
 
"The martial and political conflict in 1950 Korea is catalyst and backdrop, and the story of the Pak children's treacherous flight is compelling. The underlying domestic struggle between Sora and her parents carries equal weight, though."—The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"Lee does an excellent job of conveying Korea's powerful but painful history . . . Daring."—The Korean Quarterly

"Will ultimately be recognized as one of the best books for middle and high school students on the Korean War, and a captivating and inspiring read for people of all ages."—Education About Asia, the Association for Asian Studies

"Each character emerges as fully realized . . . Outstanding."—The Redeemed Reader

"Unbelievably powerful, this hauntingly beautiful story was so intense that, at times, it had me afraid to turn the pages. I never knew what to expect around the corner."—Jane Addams Children's Book Award Honoree Linda Williams Jackson, author of Midnight Without a Moon

From the Publisher