Peach Heaven
Kindergarten-Grade 2-Based on an incident from the author's childhood, this story is set in Puchon, South Korea, in the summer of 1976. Although the mountain behind Yangsook's house is covered with peach orchards, the girl never gets to eat the fruit as it is so expensive. Then, during a heavy rainstorm, peaches begin to fall from the sky (apparently carried down the slope by the water) and the youngster and her family feast on the delicious, ripe fruit. That evening, she begins to think about the farmers who must be worried about the loss of their crop. The next day, she and her friends gather up all of the fallen peaches, load them into a cart, and carry them back up the mountain. The colorful illustrations clearly evoke the tale's setting and the emotions of the characters. Told from Yangsook's point of view, the narrative is sweet and direct. Choi prefaces the event by expressing the girl's longing for the peaches and, later, shows how the apparent answer to her prayers becomes an awakening of conscience and a concern for the plight of the farmers. Unfortunately, the storytelling is less extraordinary than the subject matter. Still, this is a good snapshot of a different time and place.-Susan Weitz, formerly at Spencer-Van Etten School District, Spencer, NYCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.