O’Brien, Anne Sibley
In The Shadow of the Sun, 338 pages.
Arthur A. Levine (Scholastic), 2017.
$18. Language: PG (16 swears, 0
‘f’); Mature Content: G; Violence: G.
Mia and her brother
Simon are on a desperate flight across North Korea to the Chinese border. Just hours before, they were on an official
tour with their Dad, who has been here several times in his job as a liaison
for a humanitarian group. South Korean
by birth, Mia was adopted by her family when she was very young. Strangest for her is watching the North
Koreans view her blond family as outsiders, where for the first time in her
life Mia just blends in with the locals.
Late one night, however, she sees her father leave their hotel with a
stranger – something they have been repeatedly warned against doing. Against advice, Mia opens one of the gifts
from the Korean ministry; strangely enough it contains a cell phone. The next
day, their father is detained – someone reported his late night walk to the
authorities. Mia wonders if it has to do
with the phone – looking deeper, she finds disturbing photos of Koreans being
tortured. Finally getting Simon’s
attention, the pair decided to run – hoping that they can make it over the
Chinese border. If they’re caught, their
father could be detained forever as a spy.
Their desperate flight across country will test their family bonds,
their courage, and their luck.
The author has
included a lot of information about North Korea and also little vignettes
inside unmasking the thoughts of various Korean citizens that the teens
encounter. If students can make it past the set-up (about 60 pages), they will
become engrossed in the teens’ plight. I
don’t know if they will enjoy the vignettes as much as I did. O’Brien tries really hard to make this more
than a spy novel with the North Koreans as the mysterious enemy, but in doing
so, she crosses the line into preachy a little too much for the average
reader. While I certainly understand her
motivation, its hard reading about it on the page instead of just letting it
show in the action. For example, why did
I need to know about the Korean alphabet before I started reading? O’Brien’s editor should have known better.
MS – OPTIONAL. Cindy, Library Teacher
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