A graphic memoir set in 1983 in South Korea describes events during the author's freshman year of college at Anjeon University. Kim Hyon Sook is a serious student who wants to succeed academically, so she's surprised, and rather annoyed, on the first day when she has to push her way through a student protest against President Chung to get into the building where her classes are. She loves her young, charismatic English literature teacher and is attracted to Hoon, the smart, cute boy who sits next to her in one class. When Hoon, who turns out to be a leader in the student movement, invites her to attend one of his book club meetings, she readily agrees-what could be better than Hoon and books together? But the students aren't discussing just any books, they're discussing books that have been officially banned by the South Korean government. Through the discussions, Hyon Sook is exposed to radical ideas and develops a much deeper understanding of why change is needed, a transformation that defies expectations of her parents in spite of their own break with tradition (they own an American-style steakhouse). Then members of her Banned Book Group, now her friends, start getting arrested. This fascinating portrait of one young woman's political awakening has clear parallels with young people's activism in the United States and around the globe today. Dynamic black-and-white artwork shows a range of visual perspectives. (Age 13 and older)

A Junior Library Guild Selection

When Kim Hyun Sook started college in 1983 she was ready for her world to open up. After acing her exams and sort-of convincing her traditional mother that it was a good idea for a woman to go to college, she looked forward to soaking up the ideas of Western Literature far from the drudgery she was promised at her family's restaurant. But literature class would prove to be just the start of a massive turning point, still focused on reading but with life-or-death stakes she never could have imagined.

This was during South Korea's Fifth Republic, a military regime that entrenched its power through censorship, torture, and the murder of protestors. In this charged political climate, with Molotov cocktails flying and fellow students disappearing for hours and returning with bruises, Hyun Sook sought refuge in the comfort of books. When the handsome young editor of the school newspaper invited her to his reading group, she expected to pop into the cafeteria to talk about Moby Dick, Hamlet, and The Scarlet Letter. Instead she found herself hiding in a basement as the youngest member of an underground banned book club. And as Hyun Sook soon discovered, in a totalitarian regime, the delights of discovering great works of illicit literature are quickly overshadowed by fear and violence as the walls close in.

In BANNED BOOK CLUB, Hyun Sook shares a dramatic true story of political division, fear-mongering, anti-intellectualism, the death of democratic institutions, and the relentless rebellion of reading.