Every Falling Star by Sungju Lee and Susan Elizabeth McClelland

Every Falling Star falls into an in-between place in my reading theme months. I read this during the very end of October through the very beginning of November, and it doesn't quite go into either category for those months. I bought this memoir of a boy's escape from North Korea for my classroom, and wanted to read it right away in order to make recommendations for my students. I don't read a whole lot of young adult non-fiction, so this was a nice change of genre for me.

The novel tells the true story of Sungju Lee, a young North Korean boy trying to grow up under his country's strict regime. When his father is exiled from the military to a poor rural town, Sungju goes from having a relatively comfortable existence in Pyongyang to living in abject poverty. All of a sudden, instead of watching television and attending Taekwondo classes, he is struggling to get enough to eat and watching his parents sink further and further into depression.

Eventually, Sunju's parents disappear. First his father, and later, his mother, leave their home in search of food and never come back. Now completely alone, Sungju starts a street gang and begins stealing and fighting to survive. He travels with his new "brothers" around the country, always searching for a better market to steal from or a new territory to rule. Along the way, he forms a very strong bond with the other kids in his gang, and they craft a set of rules promising to stick together and look out for one another. They becomes a very close knit family.

Sungju's story has a happy ending. After several years go by, he is able to reconnect with some relatives and escape to South Korea. He goes on to attend college and dedicates his life to helping other North Koreans escape. In fleeing his homeland, he is forced to leave his brothers behind, a sacrifice that troubles him to this day. In the front pages of the novel, he explains that he uses their real names throughout Every Falling Star in the hopes that one of them will read it one day and get it touch with him. The book is dedicated to them. 

This book gives young readers an interesting look at what really goes on in North Korea, a country legendary for its bizarre and abusive leadership. However, it isn't as intriguing or emotional as you'd expect. I found the novel to be slow-moving and frequently boring. I feel terrible for thinking that, because this is a memoir of a person who has suffered deeply and overcome a lot in his life, but that was truly how I felt while reading. I think that a lot of darker details had to have been left out of the story in an effort to make this "appropriate" for a younger audience. The novel is undoubtedly weaker for it, because it lacks an emotional punch to pull in its readers. In reviewing my experience with this book, I'm finding that I just don't have a lot to say about it.

Every Falling Star was okay in the end. I enjoyed learning more about North Korea and I'm glad that Sungju Lee was able to get out and share his story with the world. He is a very brave and hardworking person, and these qualities have allowed him to break free from the circumstances he was born into and become a success. However, the overall pace of his memoir was slow and it lacked emotional depth at times. This will appeal to sensitive and mature young adult readers with an interest in history, but I definitely would not recommend this to a reluctant or struggling reader because of the pacing issues.