With war looming on the horizon and winter setting in, can two children escape North Korea on their own?Winner of the Freeman Book Award!North Korea. December, 1950.Twelveyearold Sora and her family live under an iron set of rules: No travel without a permit. No criticism of the government. No absences from Communist meetings. Wear red. Hang pictures of the Great Leader. Dont trust your neighbors. Dont speak your mind. You are being watched.But war is coming, war between North and South Korea, between the Soviets and the Americans. War causes chaosand war is the perfect time to escape. The plan is simple: Sora and her family will walk hundreds of miles to the South Korean city of Busan from their tiny mountain village. They just need to avoid napalm, frostbite, border guards, and enemy soldiers.But they cant. And when an incendiary bombing changes everything, Sora and her little brother Young will have to get to Busan on their own. Can a twelveyearold girl and her eightyearold brother survive three hundred miles of warzone in winter?Haunting, timely, and beautiful, this harrowing novel from a searing new talent offers readers a glimpse into a vanished time and a closed nation.A Jane Addams Childrens Book Award FinalistAn ILA Intermediate Fiction Award WinnerAn American Library Association Notable Childrens BookA Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the YearA Junior Library Guild SelectionA Bank Street Best Childrens Book of the YearWill ultimately be recognized as one of the best books... on the Korean War.Education About Asia, the Association for Asian Studies