When Spring Comes to the DMZ

by Uk-Bae Lee

Uk-Bae Lee (Illustrator)

Batchelder Honor Winner, 2020 ALA Youth Media Awards
Honorable Mention, 2019 Freeman Awards (National Consortium for Teaching about Asia)

Korea’s demilitarized zone (DMZ) has become an amazing accidental nature preserve that gives hope for a brighter future for a divided land.

This unique picture book invites young readers into the natural beauty of the DMZ, where salmon, spotted seals, and mountain goats freely follow the seasons and raise their families in this 2.5-mile-wide, 150-mile-long corridor where no human may tread. But the vivid seasonal flora and fauna are framed by ever-present rusty razor wire, warning signs, and locked gates—and regularly interrupted by military exercises that continue decades after a 1953 ceasefire in the Korean War established the DMZ.

Creator Uk-Bae Lee’s lively paintings juxtapose these realities, planting in children the dream of a peaceful world without war and barriers, where separated families meet again and live together happily in harmony with their environment. Lee shows the DMZ through the eyes of a grandfather who returns each year to look out over his beloved former lands, waiting for the day when he can return. In a surprise foldout panorama at the end of the book the grandfather, tired of waiting, dreams of taking his grandson by the hand, flinging back the locked gates, and walking again on the land he loves to find his long-lost friends.

When Spring Comes to the DMZ helps introduce children to the unfinished history of the Korean Peninsula playing out on the nightly news, and may well spark discussions about other walls, from Texas to Gaza.

• ISBN13: 9780874869729
• Publish Date: 28 March 2019
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Plough Publishing House
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 40
• Language: English

Reviews

[Liz (Bent Bookworm)]

~*Check out my blog, The Bent Bookworm!*~

When Spring Comes to the DMZ is an important book. It is so easy for much of the world to forget the war that happened more than half a century ago, and the countries and people still affected by it. I spent two years in South Korea with the U.S. Army, and made more than one trip to the DMZ. In a country full of people (Seoul, less than an hour's drive from the DMZ, is HUGE and a beautiful city well worth visiting), the DMZ area is somewhat startling in its emptiness. The illustrations in this book capture the odd juxtaposition of the beautiful wildlife with the razor wire, warning signs, and military equipment.

5/5 stars, highly recommend - every school library should have a copy of this book. I've pre-ordered it to have on my personal shelf at home. I don't foresee it being very popular here in the US, which is a shame, but I want to have it to show people and children a different view of the Korean DMZ. Maybe one day the mines and wire will be gone.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review!
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