KOREAN WAR
In the dry and clinical description of the annalist, the Korean War may be defined as a war between North Korea allied with China and the Soviet Union and South Korea allied with the United Nations and the United States of America. The war began on 25 June 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea. As always, wars have complex backgrounds. Reasons and factors and inevitabilities are dominoes that later historians set up in the worthy cause of warning the present time and future times not to go down that path.
I will keep this personal and small-scale. My father was a veteran of the Korean War. He was there 1953-1954 with the 7th Infantry Division and was awarded a Bronze Star for meritorious service. He was 23-24 years old there, fresh out of Michigan State University’s ROTC program. We always traded military history back and forth. Late in life he began to tell me stories of his time there — and of his experiences in the Dominican Republic and in Vietnam. As a bookseller I provided him with books on “his” war, which he appreciated for the larger canvas they provided. Here are some of the good ones I have found over the years. I know I don’t have enough of the Korean perspective of the war, and I don’t have many big strategic maps that situate the war within the Cold War. But this listing is a beginning. History is always beginning over. As a discipline, as a way of thought, history never tires of trying to get the story not only right but understandable.
Brother's Keeper
Brother's Keeper
2020 Freeman Book Award Winner
2021 International Literacy Association Children's and Young Adults' Book Award Winner
2020 Jane Addams Children's Book Award Finalist
2021 ALA Notable Children's Book
Junior Library Guild Selection
2021 ALA Rise Selection
2021-2022 VA Reads Selection
2020 Booklist Lasting Connections Selection
2021 Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year - with Outstanding Merit
Kirkus Best Middle Grade Book of 2020
Kirkus 10 Top Middle-Grade Summer Read of 2020
Booklist Top 10 First Novels for Youth 2020
4 Starred Reviews
"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
★ “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
★ "Through her journey, Sora transforms from a precocious girl into a courageous and intelligent hero. Lee captures Sora's internal journey alongside the physical one, and in the process details the struggles of a refugee from the ground level. . . . An amazing debut and an important book that explores a part of history few younger readers are taught in school." - Booklist, starred review
★ "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." - Publishers Weekly, starred review
★ "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
"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
"Lee's Brother's Keeper is a compelling #OwnVoices middle-grade novel that is both edifying and inspiring...Overlapping historical accuracy with personal testimony, Lee presents a nuanced story of strength, tenacity and everlasting family bonds." - Shelf Awareness