Blah. Was not what I expected at all. Was anticipating something a bit more like Chocolat, but this was a lot darker and had less food. Not sure if it's a translation problem, but the writing is more stream-of-consciousness than I like. The [spoiler alert] story of what happened to the protagonist & her baby was really horrifying to me. (I know the author meant it to be, so well done there, but I'm glad I wasn't pregnant while reading--seriously, don't read this if you are pregnant.)

Oh man, and I thought what happened in China was bad. A journalist wrote this book after years of interviews with North Koreans who defected to South Korea. Under the leadership of Kim Il-sung and now-president Kim Jong-il, they grew up in the last remaining 100% pure Communist country and were taught that they were better off than anyone else and had "nothing to envy." This, while they were starving from famine and their government was either refusing outside humanitarian aid or accepting it and then siphoning it over to the military. It's an eye-opening and heartbreaking read that sucked me right in.

Enh . . . I enjoyed this but wouldn't have picked it for the Newbery Honor. Four sisters go on a summer vacation with their absent-minded father and have adventures with the neighbor boy. The author kept me guessing about the time period until a reference to Prince William and, later, computers cleared it up for me. It had a sweet, old-fashioned feel to it.