Rice from Heaven: The Secret Mission to Feed North Koreans

by Tina Cho, Keum Jin Song (Illustrator)

Overview

Rice from Heaven is a true story about compassion and bravery as a young girl and her community in South Korea help deliver rice via balloons to the starving and oppressed people in North Korea.

"We reach a place where mountains become a wall. A wall so high, no one dares to climb. Beyond that wall and across the sea live children just like me, except they do not have food to eat."

Yoori lives in South Korea and doesn't know what North Korea is like, but her father (Appa) does. Appa grew up in North Korea, where he did not have enough food to eat. Starving, he fled to South Korea in search of a better life. Yoori doesn't know how she can help as she's only a little "grain of rice" herself, but Appa tells her that they can secretly help the starving people by sending special balloons that carry rice over the border.

Villagers glare and grumble, and children protest feeding the enemy, but Yoori doesn't back down. She has to help. People right over the border don't have food. No rice, and no green fields.

With renewed spirit, volunteers gather in groups, fill the balloons with air, and tie the Styrofoam containers filled with rice to the tails of the balloons. With a little push, the balloons soar up and over the border, carrying rice in the darkness of the night over to North Korea.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781499806823
Publisher:	little bee books
Publication date:	08/14/2018
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	1,057,157
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Tina M. Cho, currently living and teaching in South Korea, has been in the protagonist's shoes. She has partnered with a North Korean refugee organization to send rice balloons over the border.

Tina is the author of The Girl's Guide to Manners, 26 guided reading books from Lakeshore Learning and Compass Media, a coloring book, God Is So Good, and an e-book, Seasons of the Asian Pear Tree. She teaches at an international school and writes for the children's and educational markets. Though she grew up in Iowa, she now lives in South Korea. You can learn more about Tina at tinamcho.com.

Keum Jin Song lives in Daegu, South Korea, where she was born. Passionate about her work as an illustrator, she takes her inspiration from nature, which is reflected in her detailed, dreamy style with its smooth, wavy lines.

Editorial Reviews

06/25/2018
In a story at once lyrical and hard-hitting, Cho, a South Korean resident, reimagines a 2016 humanitarian mission in which she participated involving a clandestine rice delivery, via helium balloons, to hungry North Koreans. Narrator Yoori and her father (who grew up “starving” in North Korea and “escaped down here to the south”) arrive at the border between the two countries, where they help other volunteers from their church inflate balloons and attach bags of rice to them. When other children begin chanting “Don’t feed the enemy,” Yoori says, “The hope in my heart withers like a dying rice stalk,” and she chastises them, asserting that “We must help!/ North Korean children have no rice.” Featuring sharp, foliage-heavy illustrations and divergent color palettes, Song’s art dramatically reveals the stark contrast between the landscapes of South and North; vivid flowers and fruit grow in the lush terrain of the former, while withered vines and leafless trees dominate the latter’s barren countryside. Concluding notes on the history, culture, and politics of the Korean peninsula provide context for this eye-opening, hopeful story. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Adria Goetz, Martin Literary Management. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

2018-04-16
In a story based on the author's own experiences, a young girl in South Korea takes on a covert mission of compassion.Young Yoori and her appa (father) travel to the countryside for a church's special project: to "send special balloons carrying rice over the border to North Korea." Yoori tells readers how Appa escaped from North Korea and knows that "Beyond that wall and across the sea live children just like me, except they do not have enough food to eat." Local villagers protest their actions, chanting "Don't feed the enemy." However Yoori's passion and perseverance change a local boy's initial resistance to cooperation. There is an abundant, even conspicuous use of rice metaphors and a few moments where the flow of the text seems abrupt. Yet these are very small flaws compared to the big picture: a fascinating story based on true events in an elementary-level book that directly addresses the current situation between North and South Korea. Korea-based artist Song uses digital illustrations with vivid colors and very detailed textures for the setting, with effects that sometimes approach three-dimensional, while keeping a hand-drawn style for the human characters. The release of the elongated balloons is a wondrous sight.This compelling debut will capture the interest of children and adults alike. (author's note, bibliography) (Picture book. 5-9)

Kirkus Reviews