When My Name Was Keoko :: Education by Design Store

Customer Reviews

history

2008-06-03
this book is essential for kids, they need to know about Asia's war and history, expecially special circumstance in Korea. it is very useful to understand. i was so impressive about there live under Japanese.

I love this book.... Great WWI book

2008-04-29
This book is a great book. It's not too short and not too long. It is a book all about WWII, the droppings of the bombs and about a family of Koreans living under Japenese order. In the end, it all ends out okay.

Linda Sue Park is a great writer and I recommend this book book for all ages from 10 and up.

I love this book.... Great WWI book

2008-04-29
This book is a great book. It's not too short and not too long. It is a book all about WWI, the droppings of the bombs and about a family of Koreans living under Japenese order. In the end, it all ends out okay.

Linda Sue Park is a great writer and I recommend this book book for all ages from 10 and up.

When my name was Keoko

2007-11-25
"When we chose our new names, I pointed to the letter K. I went around whispering over and over, "Keoko. Kaneyama Keoko. Keoko." I could think about "Kaneyama Keoko" as a name but not as my name." When my name was Keoko makes reading enjoyable for kids eight and above.

Linda Sue Park writes When my name was Keoko to help remind us what happened in Korea during WWII. She writes this book in two different points of view, Tae-yul's and Sun-hee's, a brother and sister. This book focuses on a their life in Korea when it was under Japan's occupation. Koreans are forced to do whatever the Japanese tell them to do. Seeing what the Japanese made the Koreans do like study Japanese at school and speak Japanese everywhere except at home made me realize how cruel some people can be.

This historical fiction novel is filled with adventure. It is an interesting way to learn about a point in history that not many people know about. Change my name, I don't think so!

Great book for adults and teens

2007-04-10
This is a beautiful and powerful book that every adolescent girl and boy should read. I especially loved the way Park weaves Keoko's coming-of-age story in a way that honored traditional Korean values. It would have been easy to use the story to disparage those values, an all too common technique these days. But Park resisted that urge and the result is a warm-hearted and endearing story that readers will not soon forget.

syp

2006-12-04
Sun-hee and her older brother Tae-yul are proud of their Korean heritage. Yet they live their lives under Japanese occupation. All students must read and write in Japanese and no one can fly the Korean flag. Hardest of all is when the Japanese Emperor forces all Koreans to take Japanese names. Sun-hee and Tae-yul become Keoko and Nobuo. Korea is torn apart by their Japanese invaders during World War II. Everyone must help with war preparations, but it doesn’t mean they are willing to defend Japan. Tae-yul is about to risk his life to help his family, while Sun-hee stays home guarding life-and-death secrets.

Trenton's Review

2006-10-25
This story took place during four years of WW2. Sun-Hee who was the youngest in the family was a girl so she had very little rights. But she had always wished that would change because she had very good ideas. During this book the japanese were being mean to the Koreans adn they started a rebellion. Sun-Hee's uncle was printer for the resistance newspaper. When the Japanese fouind out they went into hiding. During the war in Korea they didnt learn anything in school they only du gtrenches and made sticks into spears just in case o fa take over.
Tae-Yul didnt like building those things and he was the oldest so he went and helped build an airstrip for the japanese so he could get out of school. Then he signed up for the Army hoping he would get to fly a plane. He got his chance when he voluteered to be a kamikazee bomber. He went to a training camp and was there for 9 weeks and then he was told that he was to go on a mission. He went on a kamikazee mission but never flew the whole mission because of the weather. So his parents thought he was dead but he really wasnt. He finally came home about 2 and a half months after that happened.

An American Living in South Korea

2006-03-08
This little book has had such a huge impact on me! Living here we Americans can get so confused on why the South Koreans are so "strange" at times. This book will give anyone an insight on how much change has taken place in this country over thousands of years. Read it and understand with an open heart and consider what our country would be like if it happened there. It will teach us to have compassion for this former underdog nation.

Is This Really How Life Was?

2006-03-08
This book is about the life of two middle-class children who are living in Korea in the years 9140-1945. It tells the story of a girl by the name of Sun-hee which means "girl of brightness" and her older brother by the name of Tae-yul which means "great warmth." Many things happen to all of the members of there family. As the Japanese begin to gain more and more control over Korea the less people are allowed to speak and write Korean. Sun-hee and Tae-yul face many challenges, many they overcome and many they do not.
I really liked this book because you get a taste of what the Korean and Japanese think of us. You also get to learn a lot about Korean and Japanese culture and what life would be like as a child and adult, what struggles they would go through, and much more. I also liked this book because it was very powerful and it made you realize how good our lives are.

cool book

2005-11-12
this book is really awesome. If you like historical fiction you will love this book.