So Far From the Bamboo Grove

So Far From the Bamboo Grove is by Yoko Kawashima Watkins. This novel is about her life experiences in traveling from Northern Korea to Japan at the end of WWII. There were so many intense things that occurred during this novel that I could not put it down! Yoko and her family, her mother, father, sister Ko, and brother were a Japanese family living in Korea. Yoko's father works for the government. The father was in another town at the time and so was the brother, so the mother, Ko, and Yoko had to flee in the middle of the night one night to hide from the Korean Communist Army. The novel was filled with a lot of different mental images that I found and still think would be so hard and difficult for an eleven year old (the age Yoko was). They saw so many devastating things: people getting killed, raped, hurt badly. They had to steal, hide, pretend they were Korean, for many months live in a train station living off not very much food. They would hope for the best, that they would make it to Japan and that their father and brother would meet them there. I found this novel gore but told the story the right way, I thought. I think books like this are important to read because it shows a point of view of a large piece of history that not many experienced or have any experience like it. It shows a personal point of view of what went on. I think it would be difficult to read this in a young teen classroom, but think it would be really good so, if a letter is sent home to parents about reading the book and telling the students the seriousness and honesty shown throughout the novel that it would be good. I really liked this novel. I somehow felt connected to the author, by the way she was telling the story I could picture what was going on. I felt so sad that they had to live off nothing, lie about who they were and steal food, live in a train station. I was so sad when the mother died. I thought that something bad would happen to the girls because they were young and alone with practically nothing. I was so glad they met nice people to give them a place to live. I was also so glad that the brother ended up finding them! I was confused that it ended so quick after that, but thought it was good. I really liked a lot of the book. My favorite quote is probably the last page when it says, "As I lay in mine I saw the stars shining like petals of white chrysanthemums. For the first time since I had left Nanam I felt their loveliness. And each star that sparkled was like great fireworks in the enormous sky for the gladness of our reunion." I liked it because of I was so glad she was happy again; it had taken a long time but the three were finally back together. I also saw that Yoko wrote a sequel to this book called "My Brother, My Sister, and I" which is about their life after this first book and I am going to look into it and read it because I am so interested to see what happened next!