In the Shadow of the Sun

April 24, 2017
Twelve-year old Mia, adopted from South Korea and raised in Connecticut, has mixed feelings about her aid-worker father’s decision to take her and her older brother, Simon, on a tour of North Korea. After arriving there, she further questions the reasons behind the trip after witnessing her father attend late-night rendezvous and discovering an illegal cell phone containing shocking photographs of conditions in the political prisons. When her father is arrested and held by the government, Mia and Simon must find a way to escape to China. Though Mia is initially unobtrusive and meek, she proves to be resourceful and determined under pressure, taking charge, navigating, scouting for sustenance, and using her knowledge of Korean language and culture. In her first novel, picture book author O’Brien (I’m New Here) presents a nuanced portrayal of North Korea; the government is restrictive and the police force divided, but the citizens’ complex perspectives and attitudes are revealed in thoughtful, interspersed dispatches. Mia’s reflections about being Korean in Connecticut versus in Korea are powerful, as is her assertion that she is “growing into both her names.” Ages 8–12. Agent: Lara Perkins, Andrea Brown Literary.

Mia, who was adopted from Korea, discovers forbidden photos while visiting North Korea with her father and brother. When police seize their father, the siblings attempt to escape, carrying proof of government atrocities. Narrator Jackie Chung's delivery of the precise, stilted English of the government guides suggests Mia's sense of being an outsider. However, Chung truly sets the mood of otherworldliness in her vocalizations of the gross contradiction inherent in every aspect of North Korean life--soaring pride in contributing to the grandiose glorification of the nation and abject terror of reprisal for failing to meet the Supreme Leader's expectations. The thoughts of North Koreans swing from rapturous to terrified--like balancing on a knife blade. As depicted by Chung, Mia and Simon are desperate and believable. Tension is palpable in this middle-grade thriller. L.T. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine