Name: When My Name was Keoko
ISBN: 9780440419440

Linda Sue Park

With national pride and occasional fear, a brother and sister face the increasingly oppressive occupation of Korea by Japan during World War II, which threatens to suppress Korean culture entirely.

When My Name was Keoko

this book is soooo good I read it for school but I think I should have read it anyway 

Stella

I have a special place in my heart for middle-grade books. Can't help feeling soft for the young characters. And I'm especially scared for them in historical fiction because can there even be a happy ending with the world war happening??? TT

This book depicts the lives of school girls and boys living in Korea under Japan's colony. From a very young age, they have to be calculative for survival and scrape whatever traces of Korea remain to uphold their ever-shaking national identity. I love how Sunhee resisted colonization in her capacity as a little girl in a suppressed environment. She's headstrong, curious, and rather zealous with the best intention just like most children. The war made her overly cautious and this got her into some trouble. But I guess that's only realistic. Another notable thing is Taeyul's way of problem-solving. It strikes me how little I could understand his choices. Surely, I would never know how it feels to be a boy of a colonized country flip-flapped in a political conflict between the family during the war. Taeyul's bizarre choices (according to me) just go to show how extreme and unthinkable that experience was. What a way to exhibit the reality of war. 

The book nudges a tiny bit about comfort women. This could be the first introduction of the issue to teenage readers, so Linda Sue Park played it rather safe. The children in the book also had no idea about where the girls were taken to. It's heartbreaking to imagine them finally learning about it the first time. The book incorporates lots of the war aspects subtly like that. Perhaps that's just appropriate for the target reader. But honestly, this is quite a suspense for arguably a middle-grade book. It was a good read tho. The innocent and honest narrative used to describe such a horrible time sure tugged my heartstrings.

Jeni Enjaian

I loved this book so much more than "Keeping Score," the Linda Sue Park book I read just before this. I find that, so far, I have thoroughly enjoyed the books that Park writes featuring Korean characters while the one book I have read that does not feature Korean characters fell flat for me.
Park sets this book during the Japanese occupation of Japan, specifically the years immediately prior to WWII and the years of WWII. She alternates the narration between siblings Sun-Hee and Tae-yul who bring unique and complimentary perspectives to a life increasingly deprived of their Korean culture as Japan desperately attempts to hold onto its empire. The title of the book speaks to a mandate from the Japanese occupiers that every single Korean had to ("got the privilege of") change their name and adopt a Japanese name. Our names form so much of our identity as people so this book forms a brilliant start to this deep, introspective book. 
The only reason that I did not give this book five stars is the incredibly slow pace of the narrative, typical of Park books. I just wish that Park had increased the narrative pace, just a little bit.
Other than that, I found this book spectacular.

When My Name was Keoko

Reviews