Yet these three refugee odysseys have so much in common. Three countries, three time periods, three brave protagonists. In the midst of political turmoil, how do you escape the only country that you’ve ever known and navigate a new life? Parallel stories of three different middle school–aged refugees-Josef from Nazi Germany in 1938, Isabel from 1994 Cuba, and Mahmoud from 2015 Aleppo-eventually intertwine for maximum impact. This powerful and riveting tale of one close-knit, proud Korean family movingly addresses life-and-death issues of courage and collaboration, injustice, and death-defying determination in the face of totalitarian oppression. There have been relatively few stories for young readers that are set in Asia during WWII. There is food for thought when Sun-hee’s father tells her that “they burn the paper-not the words” when referring to the Japanese soldiers who destroy her diary. Through Tae-yul’s they experience his gritty determination to join a kamikaze unit in order to protect his family from the suspicious Japanese. In her voice, readers share the joys of playing cat’s cradle, eating popcorn, and tasting American chewing gum for the first time. This beautifully written story captures these events through the eyes of a very likable young girl.

He flees, never to be seen again as the war and the post-war communist government in the north keep them apart.

In one memorable passage, Sun-hee misunderstands an oblique warning from her Japanese friend and assumes that her uncle’s life is in danger. Food grows scarcer and the Koreans, long forbidden to study their own culture and language, now must take Japanese names. The Japanese had conquered Korea in 1910 and as the war looms their demands on the Koreans intensify. Their uncle is a source of concern because he publishes an underground, anti-Japanese newspaper. Sun-hee, in the last year of elementary school in 1940, loves studying and is an obedient daughter while older brother Tae-yul loves speed and machines. Telling their story in alternating voices, the two siblings offer complementary and sometimes different versions of events. The author of three novels set in different periods of Korean history ( A Single Shard, 2001, etc.) now turns to WWII for the story of a brother and sister and their lives with their parents and uncle.

When my name is keoko