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 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:
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Can you tell us more about the famine in the 1990s?
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Have you ever tasted snake meat?
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Could you still feel the tension between North and South Korea when you were growing up?
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What was your motivation to write the book?
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Some of the plot points seem like “little miracles.” Do you think those points were possible?
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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 MoreOne 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 MoreReview from a Young Reader
Thanks to Amanda Kang, who wrote this review:
Read MoreIn The Shadow Of The Sun by Anne Sibley O’Brien
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I am 13 years old going into the 8th grade, and felt that it was a good fit (part of that may have come from the fact that Mia’s character and I have a lot of similarities, being Korean-American, about the same age, having to go to Korean school/한글학교, etc). In general, I enjoy these kinds of books about semi-hardcore survival (like The Boxcar Children) because it’s exciting to read about people my age staying alive due to their own resourcefulness.
I myself have only ever been to South Korea, although my grandpa was born in Pyongyang and my dad has been on the other side of the border twice. I learned some valuable information by reading this book, whether it’s how heavily a family’s fate depends on the time that one of their children flips her card at a performance, how accidentally dropping an important person’s portrait could send you to reeducation camp, or simply how dangerous it is to be associated with someone/something that the North Korean officials do not approve of. It’s scary, especially at this time. On the bright side, it’s helpful to know that I could change the meaning of my middle name if I wanted to. That’s not something many of my friends can do.
Of course, there is also the element of Simon and Mia’s relationship. I liked how the whole experience of being stuck there brought them closer together, the way they should be as siblings (but who am I kidding? I never get along with my sister). It was nice to see how their working together was what saved them in the end.
Anyhow, I am glad that I read this book and will give it four or five stars on goodreads as soon as it’s published (I also don’t think I mentioned that I have never read an advance uncorrected proof before, so this is a first for me). I believe that it’s really important, especially for people who assume ideas based only on what they hear in the news about places like North Korea (a kid asked me on the playground “why are you reading a communist book? That’s where Kim Jong-un is from, and we don’t like him”), to read this book and books like it, because then they’ll have a better idea of why these things happen while still reading from an outsider’s perspective. Speaking of perspectives, I really appreciated those grey sections in between the different chapters, because it is always better to have multiple viewpoints in a complicated story. I am also glad that those parts–while short–connected to the main story, because otherwise you would just have random parts mixed in with the plot and you wouldn’t get the background of the tertiary/secondary characters that you meet briefly in the narrative.
Because of this book, I now have a better understanding of the more misunderstood side of the country that my family is from, and for that I am grateful.