Book Review - Every Falling Star

I've reviewed this on my Books for Teens Blog, but I wanted to point this book out on here, also.  Considering the current international tensions with North Korea, this is a very timely read.

I became aware of this book through a cousin who heard the author speak.  "You must read this book".  I asked why, and he replied "Just READ it.  Read it now."

I have read it.  No, that's too simple a term.  I have devoured the book.  It's a spell binding tale of the nitty gritty survival of a young child on the streets of North Korea.  What flabbergasts me the most is the knowledge that this tale - the sad tale of life, death, and daily survival is STILL happening every day in North Korea.  I had to stop and remind myself several times that this was not a story set in the Middle Ages - it's a true story set in the 1990's in North Korea. 

My Tease for the story:
Sungju's family lives a life of privilege in Pyongyang.  They live in a large apartment, he has a dog, and they have food on the table every night.  He goes to the best school in the area, and he takes martial art classes, and has the best of everything.  Until that fateful day.  While never specifying what his father did, he did something that got the family banished to a work farm in the northernmost reaches of Korea.  The house they settle in has no electricity and no central heat.  Money is scarce and food is scarcer.  The town school is a rude awakening to Sungju as he realizes that the sheltered life he has lived is not the norm in the rest of Korea.

When the money and food run out, Sungju's father leaves to attempt to sneak across the border into China and smuggle food home.  As the months pass and his father doesn't return, hope begins to run out for the family.  Sungju awakens one morning to find that his mother has left, attempting a last desperate run to find food.  Sungju struggles to survive on his own, but hits a snag when he returns home after foraging for food to find that brokers have sold his house and their belongings to other people.  Forced onto life in the street, Sungju's desperate struggle for survival begins.

Sungju lives by his wits.  The desperate tale of survival doesn't pull any punches.  He eventually manages to escape the North (hence the book) but so many more never do. The tale of survival rivals any "reality" television we have in the United States.

In the words of my cousin Dave, Just read it.