Book Descriptions
for Every Falling Star by Sungju Lee and Susan McClelland
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
Sungju Lee’s comfortable early childhood was spent in Pyongyang, North Korea, where his father held an important position within the military. Three years after Kim Il-Sung’s death in 1994, Sungju and his parents made an abrupt move to Gyeong-Seong. Although his parents called it a “vacation,” it was clear that his father had lost his job and the move was punishment. Sungju witnesses poverty he never imagined in the lives of those around him, and soon experiences it in his own. After their savings run out, Sungju and his parents forage in the surrounding forest for food. Eventually his father heads to China in hopes of earning money. When he doesn’t come back, his mother leaves to ask an aunt for help. Neither parent returns, leaving Sungju to survive on his own. He and other boys he knows form a gang of kotjebi, homeless boys who steal to survive. They also fight other gangs for the right to stay and work a town. After five years of harsh living, Sungju is reunited with his grandfather, and then with his father, who had been trapped in China but finally made it to South Korea. The two have never given up hope of finding Sungju’s mother. An afterword of this gripping memoir explains that after getting his education, Sungju has worked with his father to rescue other North Korean defectors trapped in China. (Ages 10–14)
CCBC Choices 2017. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2017. Used with permission.
From the Publisher
Written for a young audience, this intense memoir explores the harsh realities of life on the streets in contemporary North Korea.
Every Falling Star is the memoir of Sungju Lee, who at the age of twelve was forced to live on the streets of North Korea and fend for himself. To survive, Sungju creates a gang and lives by thieving, fighting, begging, and stealing rides on cargo trains.
Sungju richly recreates his scabrous story, depicting what it was like for a boy alone to create a new family with his gang, “his brothers,” to daily 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.
Every Falling Star is the memoir of Sungju Lee, who at the age of twelve was forced to live on the streets of North Korea and fend for himself. To survive, Sungju creates a gang and lives by thieving, fighting, begging, and stealing rides on cargo trains.
Sungju richly recreates his scabrous story, depicting what it was like for a boy alone to create a new family with his gang, “his brothers,” to daily 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.
Publisher description retrieved from Google Books.
