 | Banned book club Author: Kim, Hyun Sook | |
| Price: $12.30 | ||
Summary:
The gripping true story of a South Korean woman's student days under an authoritarian regime in the early 1980s, and how she defied state censorship through the rebellion of reading. In graphic novel format.
| Added Entry - Personal Name: | Estrada, Ryan |
| Illustrator: | Ko, Hyung-Ju |
| Accelerated Reader Information: Interest Level: UG Reading Level: 3.50 Points: 1.0 Quiz: 513258 |
Reviews:
Booklist (10/01/23)
Full Text Reviews:
School Library Journal - 10/01/2019 Gr 9 Up—It's 1983 in South Korea, and Hyun Sook is on her way to her hard-won first day at college. Excited to study literature, she dodges her mother's arguments about the safety and necessity of schooling, but at school, she's greeted by violent demonstrations. Though she tries to ignore the students protesting President Chun's totalitarian regime, Hyun Sook starts to realize that the art and literature she loves are hardly apolitical. When she accepts an invitation to attend a seemingly benign book club that turns out to focus on banned books, her political awakening begins and she becomes involved with the underground student rebels. Husband and wife team Kim and Estrada walk readers through a complicated story, based on Kim's experiences as a young activist. Intermittent scenes of friendship and romance lighten a heavy narrative that features several depictions of police interrogating and torturing students. While the text is didactic at times, the superb storytelling and artwork keep pages turning. The black-and-white line artwork pairs deftly with the text. Ko plays with proportions, panel size and spacing, and overall style, moving seamlessly from cartoonlike to serious, detailed executions to suit the many moods of the tale. VERDICT Highly recommended for readers passionate about activism or political history, or for those who are simply looking for an excellent comic book.—Darla Salva Cruz, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY - Copyright 2019 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.
Booklist - 11/15/2019 *Starred Review* Busan-based wife-and-husband team Kim and Estrada mine Kim’s young adult experiences to expose a chilling period of recent Korean history so antithetical to the globally addictive entertainment of K-dramas and K-pop currently synonymous with South Korea. In 1983, Hyun Sook is a college freshman, determined to get the education her mother resents but her father, thankfully, supports. Her campus arrival is met with a student riot in progress calling for the dismissal of President Chun Doo-hwan over his totalitarian dictatorship. Hyun Sook manages to slip past police blockades and arrive at class, further determined to keep her head down, study, and “stay out of politics!” As an English literature major, she’s thrilled to be invited to a book club, but what she enters is anything but a cozy circle of tea-sipping groupies. Hyun Sook attempts to flee but not without hearing first that she has “some waking up to do.” Despite lingering reluctance, Hyun Sook’s quest for truth and understanding is on even as she fights her justified fears. In recreating such difficult history, artist Ko finds a remarkable balance of humor and bleakness, of youthful tenacity and growing cynicism. From joyous mask dances to bored classrooms to tortuous jail cells, Ko affectingly captures Kim’s activist-as-a-young-student journey with an affecting resonance sure to inspire today’s youthful generation of tenacious changemakers. - Copyright 2019 Booklist.
