Title: Every falling star
Description: Every Falling Star, the first book to portray contemporary North Korea to a young audience, is the intense memoir of a North Korean boy named Sungju who is forced at age twelve to live on the streets and fend for himself. To survive, Sungju creates a gang and lives by thieving, fighting, begging, and stealing rides on cargo trains. Sungju richly re-creates his scabrous story, depicting what it was like for a boy alone to create a new family with his gang, his "brothers"; to be hungry and to fear arrest, imprisonment, and even execution. This riveting memoir allows young readers to learn about other cultures where freedoms they take for granted do not exist.
Subjects: Street children, Family, Survival, Boys, Homeless boys, Social conditions, Childhood and youth, Biography, History, Boys, juvenile literature, Korea (north), Korea, juvenile literature, Outdoor life, juvenile literature
Places: Korea (North)
People: Sungju Lee
Time periods: 1994-2011