So Far from the Bamboo Grove

This was a powerful story about a Japanese families’ escape from Korea during World War II. I did not expect the novel to be as graphic as it would. The author did not hold back when describing the journey from the families’ house in the bamboo grove all the way to Korea. I loved the detail

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though, it made the story so much more real and it brought so much more attachment to the characters in the story. I could never personally relate to what Yoko was feeling in the story but I was able to imagine through the descriptive retelling. For example, ‘Someone was shaking me roughly, and I opened my eyes. Mother was saying something that I could not hear. Her hair was smeared with blood and she kept on shaking me like that madwoman in the train.’ This excerpt was right after Yoko and her mother were almost killed and her sister taken to be raped. But a plane flew overhead and bombed the soldiers.
This story was really meant to just explain the story of what it took and what it was like being a Japanese family living in Korea during the time of WWII. It was real and it was raw, Japanese families had to escape or risk being killed by the Korean Communists. Even though by attempting to escape they were risking death, but you had to fight for your family and your culture. The story did not give a proper perspective of what the Koreans were going through during this time so it is perceived that the Japanese are constantly under attack and the Koreans are terrible people. This is not the case if we look further into it though.

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"So Far from the Bamboo Grove" deals with many key concepts including adversity, adaptability, survival, perseverance, and the strive to fight through negative situations with the knowledge that things will get better. The story also presents the perspectives of both the Japanese and Koreans in the

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final days of World War II. The author shows the reader that not all Japanese agree with the war and imperialism and not all Koreans agree with communism. It shows the Japanese as being the refugees who are fighting for survival, and the Koreans who are taking back the land that is rightfully theirs. The story is told from the perspective of a young Japanese girl who was living a simple, normal life who was suddenly forced to run for her life due to extreme racism on the part of the Koreans. This is in stark contrast to the widely-known image of the Japanese having unlimited power and crushing all opposition. The author shows the reader a vulnerable and defenseless Japanese Empire. The author incorporated gory, disturbing, and frightening imagery throughout the first half of the story.

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So Far From the Bamboo Grove was an extremely gruesome yet engaging chapter book. This book conveyed that determination and a positive attitude can get you far in your challenging journey. The thing that I did not like about this book was how descriptive the writing was. For example, I was very

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disturbed reading about babies being thrown from a train and the specific details of the mothers cremation. I do not feel this book is appropriate for students who are under the age of 14 or 15. However, I did like how it was a biography and how Yoko described the characters during her journey. The characters were easy to picture. For example, I could give various characteristics of Hideyo, Yoko's mother and sister. Therefore, she did a good job depicting the characters to help the flow of the story. Even though this book was vulgar I was very engaged in it and read through it very fast.

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8. So Far From the Bamboo Grove by Yoko Kawashima Watkins and published by Harper Collins 2008 is a riveting autobiography book about a Japanese girl escape from Korea just after WWII. I constantly found myself wondering what would happen to Yoko and her family. The Plot was full of excitement and

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stirred a lot of emotion. I liked how the author switched between first person for Yoko and third for Hideyo’s parts in the story. I also liked how the author portrayed Japanese culture and how the family addressed the other members.
The plot in this story is full of excitement and suspense. I vividly remember reading on page 33 when the doctor on the train throws the dead baby off the train, the mother jumping after the baby. This part in the plot told me that the people on the train had no space for those that have died. This really surprised me. I felt a great deal of suspense through the whole novel. There are many times in the novel when the Koreans are raping Japanese women, and even Korean. I thought will Yoko ever get raped? I also liked the conflict in the story. The major conflict, at times, is Yoko verse her family. At a very young age Yoko is forced to leave her home and become a refuge. She eventually reaches a boiling point where she confesses that she hates her sister Ko. The conflict and numerous suspense in the story kept me engaged in the whole story.
Yoko’s part of the story is told in first person (I, we, etc.). Hideyo’s, her brother, part is told in third person (he, they, etc.). I have to congratulate the author on doing this so flawlessly. A lot of books I read switch between first and third but they always get confusing. The author did this in an organized fashion by separating the characters by chapters. She kept it so organized that it seemed, at times, that it was two books in one. This style of writing also gave me a broader view at how Japanese were treated by Koreans. In reading the book i picked up on a lot of differences. Whenever Yoko with her sister and mother were approached by a Korean they would be talked down to and sometimes threatened with rape or death. Hideyo (a man) was shown the same hostility by the Koreans but was off on his way when he asserted his self. This was an interesting aspect to pick up on.
It was a nice experience to pick up on the Japanese culture in this book. Whenever Yoko would address her brother, father, mother, sister, or any elder, she would always say Honorable in front of the name. the Author even capitalizes the word Honorable in the book. From reading this book it is apparent that the Japanese have a high value for their elders and their family members. They also like to keep family heirlooms like the Sword that the Honorable Mother had with her. This book is a good resource for Japanese culture.
Courage, family, and overcoming fears are strong themes within this story. Yoko and her family must poses a great deal of courage to make it to Seoul and then to Japan. They must show strength when they are up against great odds like Communist Koreans looking to capture them. Family is the central theme of the story. Yoko must rely on her mother and sister to get her pout of Korea and in to Japan. At the same time she is forced to wonder what is happening to her brother and father. Also Yoko must remember to lover her family through the adventure. Yoko and her family are constantly over coming fears in this book. They work together to make it to trains, escape from the fearful Koreans and overcome the fear of losing each other.

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I had mixed feelings about this book while reading it. I thought that Yoko's journey was truly remarkable. The only reason I did not like the book at some parts was that it was a little confusing trying to know when the author was speaking about Korea or Japan. I liked that there was so much detail

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in the writing, it made me feel like I was right there next to Yoko, Ko, and their mother through their heart wrenching journey. I felt this the most when the women were riding on the first train. There was so much honesty in the writing, I cringed when I read about the people who sucked urine from the tub and the raw delivery of the baby. This language of the writing is what kept my interest throughout the novel.
I also liked how the point of view was from Yoko, the youngest. Even though it was from her perspective, I still felt the story from Mother, Ko, and Hideyo and that was very impressive. For example, some chapters were dedicated to only Hideyo's part of his journey after he was separated from his family. This made the plot organized and kept me, as the reader, eager to keep reading. The terms of Honorable sister and Honorable mother made me understand that this family's culture is respectable and selfless. This was expressed throughout the journey when Ko and Mothers shared their food with pregnant woman and with Yoko when she complained.
The big idea of this book is acts of kindness and the strength/courage of human soul. This big idea was evident because each character had inner and exterior conflicts, for instance, Yoko's bruised ribs and when her mother died in her arms, but fought through each of them and in the end, Hideyo, Yoko, and Ko survived because of each other. I really liked how the book began with the family and ended with the family being together after all the pain and agony they each felt. Throughout the book I was wondering if their Father would return, I like how the author added at the end that he finally did return. This book opened my eyes to such a bad time in Japan and Korea and an in-depth first hand experience of the terrors that young children had to push through.

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I have mixed feelings about this book for many reasons. I liked this book because I liked the character development of the main character, Yoko. At the beginning of the story, Yoko is stubborn and wants everyone to take care of her, but by the end of the story, she wants to help everyone else. For

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example, at the end of the story Yoko tries to save her money to help her sister when they are alone. On the other hand, I disliked some of the gruesome aspects of this story because I think they were too intense for young readers. For example, the many stories of young women being raped were almost too much for me to handle, let alone an elementary reader. The main message of this book is that there are many harsh aspects of war that affect many people of all different backgrounds.

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I had mixed feelings about reading this book and from the cover; it didn’t seem to strike my attention. But, I ended up really liking this book for many reasons. I liked the characters in this book because the author painted a really good picture of what these people were like and how they lived.

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For example, she used great adjectives and verbs to describe what was going on that a lot of the time I was able to picture the characters and what they were doing. I also liked the point of view this book was told from. It was told from first person, the author, Yoko’s perspective. She was a Japanese girl living in Korea during the war. The book was all from her and her family’s Japanese perspective and that was interesting to see. Especially interesting when I compared my book to When My Name Was Keoko and that book was from a Korean perspective and they had totally different depiction of the same war and the same people. This book was able to help the reader gain a little knowledge on this war and what the Japanese had to go through. I believe the main idea in this book is to preserve and work hard, even when times are tough.

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I really enjoyed this book for a few different reasons. First, I really enjoyed reading this book from the first person point of view. Since this story was about the author herself, she was able to add in her personal feelings about the different events that took place. A specific example of a time

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when the author incorporated her own emotions was when her sister told her that she wished she were dead. During this part of the story, the audience was able to grasp the real feelings that the author had felt because she explained them in detail. I also really liked this book because as a non-fiction story, I felt it to be very engaging. The story was very organized and kept the readers curious about what events were in the future for the family. I also really enjoyed how she organized the book to have every other chapter towards the end alternate between perspectives. I felt that the overall message of this story was to cherish the time you have with family and to understand that you don’t need a lot of things to be happy.

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I liked this book for several reasons. The first reason that I like this book had to do with the plot. The conflict between the Japanese and the Koreans, with the Koreans wanting to gain control back over their country was just the tip of the iceberg. For all that took place during the story, the

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war was but a small part even though the rest of the story would not have happened if not for the war. While reading the story I was always asking questions. Were they going to make it to Japan? Would Hideyo ever catch up to his family? Would the father ever be reunited with his family? All these questions just to name a few kept me turning the pages. Secondly, the writing of the story flowed. The author went back and forth between what they and Hideyo were experiencing. The writing kept you wondering what the outcome would be. I would have never thought that the mother would die and at a train station at that. I would say that the big idea of this story is situations change people and life can grow you up real fast.

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I thought this book was a fantastic portrayal of the Japanese/Korean conflicts during WWII. The book was a bit graphic at times and contained hard subjects that are not suitable for young children. The hardships faced by the Japanese trying to escape Korea are horrific, including violence, rape and

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insufficient hygiene. One aspect of the book I really enjoyed was the switching point of views from 1st person, Little One’s view, and 3rd person omniscient looking at Hideyo’s journey. It was important that the reader know what happened to Hideyo while the rest of the family escaped, and it also showed the differences between the experiences of Japanese men and women in North Korea. The woman had to shave their heads, bandage their breasts and dress like men in order to prevent getting raped by Korean men. Hideyo had to take the journey alone and wear Korean clothes so that he would not be killed. I also enjoyed the descriptions in the book. The reader could get a good grasp on how the characters felt and the pain and suffering they went through. I could put myself in their shoes and at some parts I was a bit disturbed by the scenes written out. When the family was on the train leaving Nanam, my jaw dropped at the conditions they were living in. The way the author sets up the scene is vivid and innovative. For example, when Hideyo is walking through the forest in the fall he says that the trees were “shivering in the wind.” This helped me to visualize the cold coming in with autumn and I thought it was an interesting new way to describe something I see every year. The purpose of the book was to describe the hardships faced by Japanese living in North Korea during WWII and relay the message of pushing through struggles. Overall, the historical context of the book and the way it was written makes it a great read for students and opens opportunities to discuss a culture that is often overlooked during WWII.

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"So Far from the Bamboo Grove" is certainly one of those books you read before you teach. The subject matter is critical. The overall theme or point of the book is to give a personal background of how the Japanese were treated upon being outlawed from Korea. At this time, Korea was being occupied

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by Japan. Korea had not been divded into north and south, as it was during the later years of World War II.

Yoko, is a Japanese eleven-year-old who is residing in northern Korea, near the Chinese boarder. Her father is some kind of Japanese government cadre, stationed in Korea. As the Pacific War of World War II approaches an end, the Korean peninsula is in a lot of turmoil. The Japanese are in danger and are forced to flee, as the Koreans are vying to regain control over their occupied homeland.

Yoko's family is forced to become refugees due to her father's position. Her brother goes to aide with the war effort. Despite this, Yoko, her mother, and sister journey to Seoul in hopes to escape the horror the Koreans were inflicting. As they travel, their journey is harrowing and presents many challenges, eventually returning to Japan. The Koreans treat the Japanese wretchedly, as they felt it was their duty.

I liked this book, as it gives a graphic and detailed descriptions of survival. The train ride from Northern Korea trying to get Seoul was in many ways hard to imagine. They witnessed a birth, and then the death of the very same baby. They were hungry, and thirst enough to resource to drinking urine. When walking the final 50 miles to Seoul, they survived a bombing. They stripped the Koreans of their uniform to increase their chances for survival. These are all methods of survival, we hope as humans we never have to endure. While difficult to read, it becomes even more difficult to imagine that this was what you had to do to live. To top it off, once arriving in Japan, after the death of her mother, Yoko is able to go to school and help earn money for daily expenses. She undergoes ridicule for her poor lifestyle but manages to thrive academically. This makes her an admiral character for readers.

The book breaches the Japanese perspective of having to leave Korea and the horrors of the journey. It portrays the challenges of escaping as a refugee. The train raid was nerve wracking and gave us insight on experience we hope we would never have to endure. The families witnessed births and had to resort to drinking from the latrine when resources were low. Yoko's family even took Korean uniforms off dead bodies after surviving a bomb blast.

Yoko is your typical young girl who struggles with having to leave her beloved home. She wants to be honorable, but often has trouble maintaining a good walking speed. Despite her challenges, she still manages to get through. She struggles with her classmates, which makes her someone students can relate to. A difficult social read, but provides insight into the lives of refuges.

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I think that, “So Far From the Bamboo Grove” was an excellent book for many reasons. First, I believe that unlike many children’s chapter books out there it was an extremely realistic portrayal of tragedy and struggle. Yoko describes her family’s journey from Korea to Japan in a very honest

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way that does not leave out any details, even dirty ones. She describes when people are being raped, the terrible way in which the Korean soldiers treat people, and all the gory details that one would encounter when faced with a situation such as Yoko’s and her family. A perfect example of Yoko’s honest descriptive skills is in the first part of the book when she described her ride on the medical train. She says in one part when describing a scene where a woman’s baby just died, “The nurse tried to take the dead baby but the mother resisted. Then the medic yanked the baby from her and quickly tossed it from the train. The tiny body floated in the air like a rag doll for a moment and vanished” (Kawashima-Watkins 33-34). These few sentences encompass the brutality Yoko saw on her journey to Korea, and her uncanny and authentic way of describing it. Secondly, I really enjoyed the storyline itself. Even though, “From the Bamboo Grove” was a very difficult book to read at some points it was also an insightful story that described the way love and faith can be strengthened in times of adversity. It was very beautiful to watch the way Yoko and Ko’s relationship blossomed over the course of the story. They went from having a very antagonist and typical sisterly relationship, to one that was founded on extreme love and need for one another. I believe that the main idea of, “So Far From the Bamboo Grove” can be summed up in the last paragraph.
“That night, as dark enveloped our humble sleeping place, I made three beds. One for Hideyo, to rest well. As I lay in mine I saw the starts shining like petals of white chrysanthemums. For the first time since I left Nanam I felt their loveliness. And each star that sparkled was like great fireworks in the enormous sky for the gladness of our reunion.”
I believe this last paragraph signifies hope and better times to come. I think that the central message in, “So Far From the Bamboo Grove” is that hope can get you through almost anything. Throughout the entire book and all the terrible situations Yoko and her family were put through, they always had hope which kept them going. If Ko and Yoko did not have the hope of seeing their brother and father once again they would have never picked themselves up and moved forward after their mother died. Likewise, if Hideyo did not have the prospective of seeing his sisters and parents again he would have never had the extreme drive he did to get to Japan. The author stresses through her characters the importance of hope in motivating people to continue on in their daily lives while in the midst of adversity.

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The main idea of this story is to recount the events surrounding the author's time living in Korea during the Japanese invasion during World War II. The author is Japanese. I did not like this book at all. For one, I think that this book is entirely too graphic. The book often talks of rape and

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violence, and I think that it sheds too dark a light on what was happening, and is inappropriate for the intended audience. Also, I did not like this book because of the obvious racism. For example, it refers to the Korean people as the 'Damn Koreans'. While I understand that it was because of the situation and because of the war at hand, it still is very strong language to be using towards another group of people, and is not consistent with what I think people should be learning today and how people should treat each other. Finally, I did not like this book because I found the plot a little bit confusing at times due to the names of the characters. I think that given more of a background on Korean and Japanese names, I may have been able to understand the events of the story because I would have understood what was happening between individual characters.

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I had mixed feelings about the book. I liked the book for its theme of family and perseverance. I disliked the book because of its subject matter and ending. The theme or big idea of the book is perseverance and family. Yoko’s family must escape from the Korean soldiers after Japan is defeated in

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World War II. The women of the family must leave without the young man Hideyo. They face a perilous journey alone, nearly being raped or murdered by Korean soldiers. However, when they reach the city of Seoul, their first concern is reconnecting with Hideyo and keeping the family together.

After the women return to Japan, they have little money not even enough to buy shoes and they forage from the garbage for food. Yet, they still leave messages for Hideyo and post offices and railway stations. The sisters Ko and Yoko show each other kindnesses in the midst of their poverty. The money Yoko had saved for shoes, goes to buy Ko a teapot and tea for New Year’s. The family perseveres and survives the horrible tragedies they face.

I liked that the theme of the story was so powerful. It left the reader eager to find out what would happen next but with the reassurance that the family would stay together. The love the sisters have for each other and their mother and brother is overwhelming even when tested by war and destitution.

I disliked the subject matter of the book and do not know if it is appropriate for younger readers. At many times during the story, the girl children and mother fear getting raped. They have to shave their heads and wear men’s army uniforms to protect themselves. However there are scenes where women are dragged off and raped while trying to use the bathroom. While this may have been a reality during wartime, it was not handled with sensitivity in the book. The scenes were harsh and frightening. It left me with questions of propriety.

I also disliked the ending of the book. The children have struggled through their escape from Korea, living in poverty in Japan, and their mother’s death. In the very last pages, they are reunited with Hideyo but the reader is left wanting more. So many questions are left unanswered. What happened to their father? Will they have money from the sale of their family’s land? Will they continue in school now that their brother has returned? Willl they continue to live in the warehouse? Will their friend Matusmura help them now that their brother has returned? I felt like there were too many loose ends and that the story ended abruptly.

Overall, I had more negative feelings about the book than positive. I liked the theme of the story but felt that the darker details were not handled well. I also felt the ending left the reader with a short curt finish.

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“So Far From the Bamboo Grove” was a story of perseverance as a Japanese family strives to live in harsh conditions while leaving North Koreans to return to Japan. Although the book was engaging, I personally did not enjoy it. The storyline was very vulgar in its details, which may have been

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true to the brutality that these people faced, but it made the book very hard to read. For example, while traveling in a train cart during their journey, the author provides horrific details of a woman giving birth, the newborn dying and the nurse throwing the body off the train. Furthermore, the people on the train were dying of starvation and dehydration, so one woman reverted to drinking from the tub of urine. The details were too gruesome for me and I winced as I read most of the story. Another reason I did not enjoy this book was because it provided a reader strictly with one point of view: from the Japanese. Almost all Korean people were portrayed as vulgar, raping young girls and treating the Japanese very unfairly. I believe that readers of “So Far From the Bamboo Grove” could get a very wrong impression of North Koreans, when in reality, the Koreans could have a very different point of view.

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I really enjoyed this book for many reasons. I really enjoyed the different characters throughout the book. I enjoyed how Yokos older sister, Ko, was such a strong person throughout the book and how she taught her little sister to be strong throughout the journey as well. There were several times

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in the book where things got extremely hard, but Ko was always stern and demanding, which even though hurt Yoko at times, it made her a stronger person throughout their experience. I also really liked the writing and plot of the book. I felt as if I was never bored while reading. There was always something happening that kept me entertained. There were several different moments of suspense that lead to conflict, but then ended up working out in a completely different way. For instance, after the girls mother died, the story still managed to have some positivity following by attending school and making their own money. I think the overall message of this book was that even though you can’t control certain things in life, making the best of your situation will help in the long run. Sticking together as a family will always help any tragedy in life be a little bit easier by helping each other out in hard times.

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I liked the book So Far From the Bamboo Grove. I liked this book because of the point of view and the use of figurative language. I love that the story is told from the point of view of the daughter, Yoko. This point of view allows the reader to connect to the family and their struggles on a more

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personal level. Some of the lines are extremely powerful and vivid. One line that stuck with me was, “Now I was very dizzy and wondered if I was going to die.” This point of view gives the reader a deeper look into the struggles that she and her family went through. The author also used great figurative language. She says, “The engine passed by, roaring and shaking the tunnel, and the wind from the train blew out the candles.” This use of personification and imagery paints a picture in the reader’s mind. It emphasizes the gravity of each situation. The overall message I took from this book is to persevere through hard times and to always lean on family for support.

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This autobiography follows the hardships of a Japanese family at the end of WWII. A mother and her two daughters, one of which is the narrator, try to escape from their home in Korea to back to Japan after death threats from the Korean government. This story showed me how important family,

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education, and fighting for your freedom are. The most important theme throughout the book to be was protecting and making sacrifices for your family. Overall, I greatly enjoyed reading this book. It pulled me and made me feel so many emotions. However, I had mixed feelings at times. One reason I did not enjoy this book was because of some of its graphic content. There were several instances where a rape scene occurred or a lewd comment was made from a male to a female. While I understood these were events that did occur, it seemed too graphic for a book targeted to a younger age group. That being said, there were many aspects of the book that I enjoyed. One was the portrayal of the main character. Because this was an autobiography you really got a strong sense of how she felt. When I was reading parts of the book about when she was complaining, or upset, or talking about how she felt she described it from a viewpoint of a child. By doing that I was able to remember times in my childhood when I felt some of the same emotions she did. Another reason I liked this story was because it told two different stories. Often times a story just focuses on what is happening through one person. This novel however, flipped back and forth between the girl’s story and her brothers. I found this to be a very interesting approach. Instead of just saying that she didn’t know where her brother was, we got to hear his story as well. While this story had many sad and graphic scenes it was a overall great book that taught me a lot about overcoming obstacles and making sacrifices for your family. I loved hearing a firsthand perspective from a young spectator living through the war.

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I had mixed feelings about this book. The book has a good plot that draws the reader in but the story is also very graphic and I am not sure I would want children reading it. They also might not understand some of the things that are happening. For example the book includes the raping of many women

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but does not say the word rape, it only gives context clues and I'm not sure children will understand this. I also wouldn't want them to read about rate. Another example in the book is that there is a lot of violence and killing. This may be frightening for some children. Although there are negatives to this book, there are also positives. The book demonstrates a family that must try and reunite after a long and hard war. The family must show strength throughout the book in order to get through the different obstacles. For example, the mom doesn't eat because she feels it is more important for others to eat.

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This fiction chapter book would be best for 5th graders. It is on the cognitive level of 4th and 5th graders, but has some difficult and sometimes scary concepts. It is about a Japanese family who lived in Japan during the World War and are trying to safely escape the country. It is a good way to

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start a discussion and inform students about other cultures and history. I recommend this to teachers who want to open students eyes to see what other countries and other people have dealt with in the past.

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This is a great novel telling the story of a family torn apart by war and the trials they face will trying to get back to their home Japan. This story really reflects the civilians that are in war and what they encounter. The story itself isn't a happy story, but a more personal encounter of the

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sad and hard times a family had to go through. Death lingered around the story as family members died.

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I unfortunately did not like this book. Even though the story depicted a young women’s tale of World War II, I did not enjoy reading it. I found this book very hard to get into. It started off very slow and when it began to pick up the pace, the book became almost too intense for this reading

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level. This book was extremely graphic and I cannot imagine seeing young students reading this. When Yoko and her family are on their way to Seoul, a women tries to breast feed her son but notices he is not waking up. When the nurse pronounces him dead, she yanks the baby from his mother’s arms and tosses him out of the moving train. I was mortified when I had read that. However, I do take into account that this is a true story and these events did happen, but this book was not for me.
While there was a message of the importance of family and the strength that a family has; I believe the author’s big idea was to give a glimpse of that it would have been like to be a Japanese girl in Korea during World War II. The author wanted to show the readers a different perspective of the events that unfolded and to realize that there are always two sides of a story.

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This book was phenomenal. I very much connected with this book even though I differentiate from the main characters. One of the reasons why I loved this book was because of the organization. I loved the way the author separated the main character's experience from the brother's experience. It was

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sequential, it made sense, and it kept you in suspense as to who's story would be in the following chapter.
Another reason why I liked this book was because of the character development. The characters were written so well, and you truly grow up with them. From the beginning, the main character was young and whiny. By the end of the book, she is mature and capable of keeping her minor concerns to herself.
The main idea of this book is that through any tragedy in life, one can survive and excel with the help of family.

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I had mixed feelings about this book after reading it. I liked the book because it demonstrated a different perspective of such an important event in history that I feel I have only really learned about the American perspective. I feel that this is so important because people should learn about how

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people on the other side of the situation feel and react. As we have discussed in class there have been decisions where education only informs the students of the American perspective. I feel that books similar to this one should be an integral part of the classroom, when it is appropriate. Which brings me to why I did not like this book. I understand completely how this book demonstrates the realistic properties of this time, but I just felt that the reading level for this book is too young for the child to be mature enough to understand and deal with the content fully and appropriately. This especially comes into play during the suggested rape scene that the daughters encounter on the train. They did not explicitly say that rape was occurring, but it was definitely inferred by the descriptive language used. This book is definitely important and demonstrates important messages about family, education, and fighting for your freedom. I just had a hard time with the graphicness of some of the content. On the other hand, I am completely aware of how important it is to truly depict the occurrences of what was happening during this difficult time with WWII—but the vivid brutality depicted made the book hard to read. For example, while traveling on the train the author provides horrific details depicting a woman giving birth, the newborn dying, and the nurse hurling the corpse off the train. This was just very hard to read, even though it is important to acknowledge the hardships people endured during this memorable time in history. Overall, the main message of this book is that family is so important and it is possible to overcome struggles. This book taught me about the sacrifices family’s make and that it is possible to work through hardships and persevere in difficult times.

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