How I Came to Write This Book
Writing this novel has been a ten-year journey of research, hard work, conversation, and reflection, especially on the subject of identity. I’m a white American whose own identity was profoundly shaped by moving from New Hampshire to South Korea in 1960, when I was seven years old. Korea, where my parents worked as medical missionaries, was our family’s home base for twenty-one years.
I speak fluent conversational Korean, spent my junior year of college at a Korean university, and have returned to Korea many times throughout my adulthood. Korea is “home” to me, even as my connection remains that of an outsider-insider. But prior to this book, my sphere of personal knowledge, experience, and interest in Korea had never included the North. Even when I was a child and teenager in South Korea, the country occupying the other half of the peninsula seemed unknowable, foreign and menacing — a feeling exacerbated by the bellicose threats and posturing of the DPRK, and its 1968 assassination attempt on South Korean President Park Chung-hee.
Ten years ago, a chance interview question about reunification led to the idea for a novel about two American kids on the run in North Korea. I did some reading and daydreaming, but I felt uncertain about my connection to the material until I met Reverend Peter Yoon, a member of the Council on Korean Studies of Michigan State University. In 2007 he had traveled into the DPRK from China by train and had an hour and a half of video footage of the countryside between Sinuiju and Pyongyang. The images were spellbinding, and to my surprise, they were familiar.
Rural North Korea in 2007 — wide plains filled with rice fields, farmers planting in flooded paddies, people pushing carts and riding bicycles, clunky concrete apartment buildings painted pink and blue — looked exactly like the South Korean countryside of the 1960s where I grew up. I realized the DPRK was not unknowable and foreign; despite its government, it was part of a land I knew and loved. Over the years of research and writing that followed, North Korea came into focus more and more as a place of enormous complexity and contradiction, and most of all a place full of real people.
Indeed, contrary to the popular image of a country shrouded in mystery about which we know almost nothing, I’ve found an extensive amount of information available about the DPRK.
More About Growing Up in Korea:
Of Longing and Belonging (Korean American Story)
Considering North Korea (Korean American Story)
Follow Mia & Simon’s Journey! (Spoiler Alerts!)
This Lit Trip was created collaboratively by librarian Jen Bishop, her middle school students, and me. Here’s how we did it.
Read MoreCreating a Lit Trip with Middle School Students
In April 2018 I saw a tweet from Jennifer Bishop, middle school librarian in Saco, Maine, appreciating the usefulness of this website. This prompted a dialogue:
Fast forward two months, and I was visiting with Jen’s middle school students as we collaboratively created our own Lit Trip for In the Shadow of the Sun. Basing our process on these instructions for creating a Google Lit Journey (https://www.googlelittrips.org),
Jen divided the students into working groups to generate locations in each chapter and any questions.
After the visit, I built on the students’ work to create a list of locations and filled in coordinates and notes, which Jen used to create the final Lit Trip map.
See next post for the Lit Trip reveal!
Read MoreStudent Projects in Maine Coastal Schools
In May 2018, I had a lovely tour with Island Readers & Writers, which serves schools on Maine islands and in Washington County. At tiny Charlotte Elementary School, the class of 6th-8th graders responded to In the Shadow of the Sun with creative projects, including a video (still to come, I’m told). I was delighted by this wonderful diorama depicting the moment that Mia and Simon attempt to cross the border, complete with the hole in the fence and the Great Wall in the background:
At Deer Isle Stonington, a middle school English teacher dove into deep waters of content and theme with her students, in relation to a unit of study in which they were examining courage, resilience, and perseverance:
-
Can you tell us more about the famine in the 1990s?
-
Have you ever tasted snake meat?
-
Could you still feel the tension between North and South Korea when you were growing up?
-
What was your motivation to write the book?
-
Some of the plot points seem like “little miracles.” Do you think those points were possible?
-
What can you tell us about your experience with North Korea that touches on courage, resilience, and perseverance?
It was exciting to see scenes from the book recreated in concrete form, and to engage in discussion in response to student inquiry. I’m constantly amazed by what students can do when they’re invited to explore by a creative teacher!
Read MoreBook Tour in Korean International Schools
In January-February 2018, I spent a month back in Korea on an author tour of nine international schools, seven in Seoul and two on Jeju Island — including Seoul Foreign School, which I attended for part of 2nd grade, all of 3rd, and all four years of high school. There I got to see myself on the cafeteria wall with other winners of the Seoul Foreign School Award.
The trip offered wonderful opportunities for explorations of the content, themes, and process of creating In the Shadow of the Sun, with students from fourth grade through high school.
At Branksome Hall Asia, a girls’ K-12 English-language immersion school on Jeju, I explored creating fictional characters with high school students who were also writers.
In high school English classes at St. Johnsbury Academy on Jeju, we talked about identity — how racial and cultural identity develops, the difference between minority- and majority-group identity, the experience of being bicultural and “third culture” — and did free-writing.
After the sessions, the librarian invited students to reflect on the experience if they chose, asking about their favorite comment, their favorite idea, what inspired them, and about personal connections they made. She was deluged with wonderful responses. Here are a few:
- The talk was very captivating. I plan to read your book about North Korea. I was also inspired by your idea of writing a notebook with random ideas. I think it is similar to a diary, with a lot more freedom. I didn’t have an opportunity to actually meet a writer before, so the entire experience was very exciting for me. Personally, I can’t imagine writing as a job…..^^; DHK
- 1. Ideas come the best when doing a free writing. 2. My favourite idea we’ve discussed was about the technique and benefit of free writing before doing actual writing. 3. When she said that a perfect writing always come after constant revisions, I was hugely inspired by it. 4. My grandfather was a North Korean defector before the war broke out. He told me about the suffering and adversity he have been through in North Korea. When you were talking about the book that you have written, I could somehow relate it to my grandfather’s experience. It was great to hear from you. Thank you. DKG
- I really liked the concept of your book, ‘In the Shadow of the Sun’ and wanted to read the book. It was not a usual opportunity to see a foreigner who can speak both Korean and English came to make a speech or lecture, and it was fascinating. Especially, the metaphor you used to explain writing habit, Composting, was mind-blowing. I still keep the note that I wrote about my identity, and will use them whenever I have to write something or when I have to organize my thoughts. GWK
- My class discussed about when we feel that we are Korean. In this process, the Guest Author commented ‘Keep writing, do not stop writing.’ which was my favorite comment. This comment inspired me. When she asked us to write about when do we feel that we are Korean for 5 minutes, when I ran out of ideas, I tried to just think about what to write and not stop writing. YSO
- I liked to discuss about bi-cultural behavior. Also, I liked to share what kind of culture did you experienced and what did you learn about it. EG
- Listening to her story made me recognize the cultural diversity in the world. This helped me to learn the fact that it is important to respect everybody who has each unique culture. HJC
- She talked about multi-cultural perspective which is topic that we usually can sympathize. It is because we are in the international school. After the presentation, I could think about myself. Thank you for giving wonderful speech to us. Maybe I will try your book soon. JHK
- When I first met her in the history class, I could heard about the third culture, which I had never hear before. Her presentation inspired me to think about my identity. Think about my background, surroundings, and the variables in my life. Also, I could learn that our own culture could be constantly changed by the various experiences. NEJ
- The favorite comment was about 3rd culture kid which is a mixture of two or more culture. This came to my mind because I have also experienced multi culture and believed myself that I am a 3rd culture kid. Favorite idea discussed was ‘free writing’ which actually helped me a lot in reshaping my thoughts. I have spent nearly three years in New York and the concept of Mrs. Ann’s speech which was basically about cultural mix. I truly agreed when she said that the 3rd culture kids feel like home in many places but at the same time “never home.” JHK
One Sentence Review
Thanks to Romy who posted this comment on Twitter; couldn’t imagine a better compliment! 🙂
Read MoreThis book by @AnneSbleyOBrien is so good I didn’t mind my baby waking up in the middle of the night to nurse because it gave me an excuse to keep reading 😝#amreading
Young Reader Review
Thanks so much to Annie, who sent me this wonderful response:
Read MoreI just finished In The Shadow Of The Sun today (after finishing my ELA test, which was utterly terrible) and it was one of the best books I’ve ever read.
About a month ago I was with my grandparents at lunch and, much to my grandmother’s dismay, I brought the book into the restaurant with me. I was sipping raspberry iced tea and reading a mile a minute when my grandmother asked how the book was.
I believe my exact words were, “It’s so, so good. It’s one of those books you get sucked into after the second page.” As I was desperate for more I went on to read the author’s note, which I don’t think I’ve ever done before in a book.
Congratulations on your first novel! Keep them coming, your first was spectacular!!
p.s. One part I forgot to tell you: The book was at the book fair at my school, and as soon as I saw it I dragged my friend over to the shelf and talked about it so much that instead of calling it by its title she started calling it ‘the good book’, after what I’d called it so many times.
Honors!
Launching a book can feel as if you’re putting a small vessel into a vast sea, in the midst of thousands of other craft. Will it ever be seen again?
Upon its release last year, In the Shadow of the Sun was chosen as a
In the past month, the book has been honored on four new lists:
🔅Bank Street College of Education, The Best Children’s Books of the Year, 2018 Edition
🔅NCSS/CBC Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People 2018
🔅International Literacy Association Teachers’ Choice
🔅Maine Student Book Award Nominee
I’m deeply grateful for these forms of recognition, and all the readers who may find my book because of its appearance on one of these lists.
Read More