"The Year of Impossible Goodbyes" by Sook Nyul Choi

This book is a wonderful compliment to So Far From the Bamboo Grove.  I really liked reading both books and comparing their viewpoints.  I thought that Sook Nyul Choi did a great job giving the reader a sense of what the conditions were really like in North Korea during the Japanese occupation.  The descriptions of the sock-factory about the girls who worked night and day in the factory were interesting to me.  At first I thought the book moved somewhat slowly, but after a couple chapters I really got into it and found myself having a hard time putting it down!  I would definitely recommend this book to others and can see myself using it in the classroom.  So Far From the Bamboo Grove and The Year of Impossible Goodbyes are both fictional nonfiction books but they give a good perspective of each side during the war.  I liked that I wasn't convinced to favor either side after reading the books.  These are a great example of how to intertwine literature with a history lesson, a teaching techniques I've learned is very effective for literacy.