Brother's Keeper by Julie Lee

“Can two children escape North Korea on their own?

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?”

This story is about family, and the hardships you go through together and for one another. This book was totally engrossing and I could not put it down! I had next to no knowledge of the Korean War and this was truly enlightening and at times absolutely heartbreaking. I adored Sora and Youngsoo in this story. Their strength and determination gave me so much hope. And seeing how deeply sexism is built into society for Sora was infuriating. This is overwhelmingly, a sad story. But it has a lot of heart and still has a happy and hopeful ending too. It was really well written and I loved it.

Free digital ARC was provided to me by Holiday House.

Brother's Keeper will be available on July 21st, 2020.

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Genre: middle grade, historical fiction

Representation: korean mc

Content Warnings: war, sickness, starvation, main character death, sexism