(3) K-3 Illustrated by Yangsook Choi. Eight-year-old Jangmi prepares to leave Korea and move with her parents to Massachusetts. The lengthy text and detailed oil paintings capture Jangmi's heartache at leaving behind her beloved home, her best friends, and everything that is familiar. But on her first day in America, Jangmi makes a new friend, and while, realistically, she still feels sad, the book ends with hope for a happy future.

Reviewer: Anne St. John

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Grace Lin. Once you get past the silly premise of a New York bagel popping into the mind of a Korean boy in an ageless rural village, this slight story proceeds with the rhythm of a traditional tale in which a farmer, a fisherman, a beekeeper, and a baker all help Yum Yung to make a perfect bagel. The flat gouache paintings are in keeping with the folk style.

Reviewer: Melinda Greenblatt

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Christopher Zhong-Yuan Zhang. Song-ho is a poor peasant boy in Korea who eavesdrops outside a classroom that only admits privileged boys. The kindly teacher, however, allows him to attend, and so stellar is his academic performance that he represents the school in the Royal Bee--a yearly contest of knowledge. The rich oil paintings have a stately symmetry that reflects the language of the lengthy story.

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(3) K-3 Illustrated by Debra Reid Jenkins. In this account of an event in the authors' mother's life, a guide leads Soo, a young girl living in North Korea, south to the "freedom land." There she is reunited with her father, but the war breaks out before her mother can join them, and Soo never sees her again. This book is beautifully illustrated with oil paintings that contrast somber backgrounds with the light of the peoples' faces.

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