Year of Impossible Goodbyes Series by Sook Nyul Choi

It is 1945, and courageous ten-year-old Sookan and her family must endure the cruelties of the Japanese military occupying Korea.  Police captain Narita does his best to destroy everything of value to the family, but he cannot break their spirit.  Sookan's father is with the resistance movement in Manchuria and her older brothers have been sent away to labor camps.  Her mother is forced to supervise a sock factory and Sookan herself must wear a uniform and attend a Japanese school... moreIt is 1945, and courageous ten-year-old Sookan and her family must endure the cruelties of the Japanese military occupying Korea.  Police captain Narita does his best to destroy everything of value to the family, but he cannot break their spirit.  Sookan's father is with the resistance movement in Manchuria and her older brothers have been sent away to labor camps.  Her mother is forced to supervise a sock factory and Sookan herself must wear a uniform and attend a Japanese school.Then the war ends.  Out come the colorful Korean silks and bags of white rice.  But Communist Russian troops have taken control of North Korea and once again the family is suppressed.  Sookan and her family know their only hope for freedom lies in a dangerous escape to American-controlled South Korea.Here is the incredible story of one family's love for each other and their determination to risk everything to find freedom. less

* “Wonderfully telling scenes evoke the time, the place, and—more subtly—the deep-running emotions that these people, bound by customs and besieged by troubles, were so rarely free to acknowledge.”—Kirkus Reviews, pointer review “Ms. Choi writes of social, political and personal hurts in a context few young Americans today have experienced. Yet she tells of more than dislocation: she tells of Sookan’s personal growth, indeed her triumph... more* “Wonderfully telling scenes evoke the time, the place, and—more subtly—the deep-running emotions that these people, bound by customs and besieged by troubles, were so rarely free to acknowledge.”—Kirkus Reviews, pointer review “Ms. Choi writes of social, political and personal hurts in a context few young Americans today have experienced. Yet she tells of more than dislocation: she tells of Sookan’s personal growth, indeed her triumph.”—New York TimesSookan, the unforgettable heroine of Year of Impossible Goodbyes, is now fifteen years old and a refugee in Pusan, a city in a southern province of Korea. The Korean War is raging, and she once again has been separated from her father and brothers. Anxiously awaiting any news of them, Sookan imagines a time when she can return to a normal life in Seoul. In the meantime, though she often feels sad, alone, and scared, she finds solace in a forbidden friendship and from the mysterious “shouting poet” who offers her and her fellow refugees inspiration each morning. less

In the conclusion of the story that began with Year of Impossible Goodbyes and Echoes of the White Giraffe, Sookan, a young Korean girl, travels to the terrifying new world of New York City to attend college.