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 Air Cooled VW Specialists IN BUSINESS SINCE 1984 Advertised in Hot VW's magazine, VW Trends Magazine, and VW Custom & Classic Magazine |
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So Far from the Bamboo Grove - Yoko Kawashima Watkins
Paperback Published: 1994-05-24 192 pages Amazon Sales Rank: 78614 List Price: $5.99 Lowest New Price: $2.35 (32 available) Lowest Used price: $0.07 (56 available)
Though Japanese, eleven-year-old Yoko has lived with her family in northern Korea near the border with China all her life. But when the Second World War comes to an end, Japanese on the Korean peninsula are suddenly in terrible danger; the Korean people want control of their homeland and they want to punish the Japanese, who have occupied their nation for many years. Yoko, her mother and sister are forced to flee from their beautiful house with its peaceful bamboo grove. Their journey is terrifying -- and remarkable. It's a true story of courage and survival. Similar Books
An inspiring and thought provoking story. . . (4) - So Far From the Bamboo Grove was a mesmerizing memoir that dedicates the strong bond and love within a family. When reading this book, I thought that the horror and reality in the main character's (Yoko) words were shocking. It was interesting not only to read the effect of war on an innocent family trapped in a period of hardships (World War II), but also the fact that the innocent family was of Japanese background, thereby causing hatred toward their kind. Though the vocabulary and writing style were not on a more advanced level, the simple text added to the book. This is mainly because the main character is of a young age, therefore showing the story in her perspective, and her thoughts. Though some historical content is mistaken (like the growth of bamboo) the author may have easily used bamboo as a comparison towards her family's strength and bond between each other. Though the horror is what makes the author's story so unbelievably real, I felt the images were almost too vivid at times. I also feel that if i were my choice, I would have rather heard from the perspective of Yoko's older sister, Ko because Ko was older and played a very big role in their survival. I also think that Ko is a more relatable character, therefore putting the book in Ko's perspective would have reached out to more readers. Overall, the book is a read that would change your view on war, and give inspiration and strength in every aspect in your life. So Far from the Bamboo Grove (3) - I think this book was fair. It wasn't fabulous but it wasn't bad. I disliked it because Yoko was always complaining about everything. Even about the littlest things Yoko would constantly complain about them. I found that very irritating. I liked the book because it was very detailed and discriptive. As I was reading, I could visualize everything so easily. I found that to be very helpful to understand the book. Summer Reading (3) - For my summer reading assignment i had to read this book for my english class. I thought this book was a good story and i enjoyed most of it, except the ending. I was left thinking, what was going to happen next? I thought it showed very well the difference of an average girl today and a girl in korea during world war two, by telling the reader all the gruesome things that happened to Yoko (the main character who was 11). Overall, i would reccommend this book to a friend and talk about it with other people. i liked it (4) - i think that overall this was a good book. I liked that it was so visual because I was able to see what it was like to be in the character's shoes. I do have to say that the author is a good writer because she was able to make me, at one point, think that the Koreans were the bad ones. She wrote it from only one point of view and made it seem as if all Koreans were bad people. However, she has to realize that no one is perfect and there were always be two different types of people in this world: good people and bad people. Compelling Japanese viewpoint of Pacific War and Korean Occupation (4) - A detailed and compelling memoir. Eleven-year-old Yoko and her family must move from Naman, North Korea, at the end of World War II and the end of the Japanese Occupation of Korea. The father is imprisoned, son is separated, mother is ill, and she and two daughters take a journey of peril, separation, poverty and hunger to be repatriated to Japan. Once there, they live in a bomb ruin and attempt to go to school (befriended by the janitor who saves her paper and pencil stubs) while mother searches for son and husband. Shelved in Young Adult, but a compelling, informative read for adults. |