Every Falling Star: The True Story of How I Survived and Escaped North Korea

“Every Falling Star” explores the harsh realities of the secretive and communistic life in North Korea through Sungju Lee's memoir, co-authored by Susan Elizabeth McClelland. With the tagline “the true story of how I survived and escaped North Korea,” the book draws in an audience seeking a story of triumphant and brave escape... The narrative falls short of its potential.

At the beginning of the book, Sungju is happily living in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, with family. He dreams of following in his leader’s footsteps and being a successful and confident military leader. However, one day Sungju’s father announces that the family will be going on vacation. Readers follow as Sungju slowly realizes that this isn’t a vacation at all – it’s an exile from successful society. Sungju’s parents, suffering from lack of food, money, and hope, eventually leave him in search of resources to help. The majority of the book takes place over these YEARS that Sungju spent in the streets: doing hard drugs, drinking copious amounts of alcohol, gang fighting, stealing food, and simply fighting to survive. While it is at first a harrowing tale of bravery and tenacity, it turns to the glorification of gang life as Sungju (later self-named Chang) seeks out fights and tries to dominate the markets across North Korea. While I thought this would ultimately build into the reasoning behind Sungju’s escape from North Korea, it simply did not.

The escape from North Korea seems almost incidental. Sungju does not consider ever leaving North Korea until the very end of the book – this wasn’t a planned and thought out escape (at least, of Sungju’s doing) – rather, a presented opportunity. The experience was overshadowed by a prolonged focus on his survival in the streets. 

This is a real and seemingly uncensored version of events from Sungju’s childhood. Because of our limited resources to learn about the conditions of life in North Korea, I do believe this book is one worth reading to gain a more worldly perspective. It will open your eyes about the conditions of life for those North Koreans not fortunate enough to be in Pyongyang. If you needed to use this resource in a classroom, it could lend itself to meaningful conversations about mental health, drug addiction, corrupt governments, and empathy. However, that being said, I’m not confident that this book would be something that I would read with my students.

I had originally intended for this to be a supplemental novel study after my students read Malala Yousafzai’s book “We Are Displaced,” which tells the story of several young girls fleeing dangerous countries in search of better opportunity. Thematically, this story does not make much sense in comparison. Moreover, the inclusion of explicit and sensitive content in “Every Falling Star,” such as hard drug use, rape, and prostitution, raises concerns about the appropriateness of the book for a middle school audience.

Every Falling Star is about a boy named Sunju. He grew up in North Korea. The story starts in Pyongyang. He lives there with his mother and father. He goes to school and after school activities. He also visits with his grandparents and owns a dog. Sometime after Kim Il-sung died he goes home to find soldiers taking his dog away. His parents tell him they are going on a vacation. While on vacation he starts going to a new school and sees things he has never witnessed before. He watches an execution of traitors and sees people begging. HIs mother tells him that his father is seen as a failure now and was sent away. Sungju stops going to school and they start searching the forest for food. His dad decides to leave to get money and food in China. He does not come back. After a while his mother says she is going to see her sister to get food. She leaves and also does not come back. Sungju starts begging and stealing food from people. He gets together with a group of boys around the same age. They form a gang and travel around North Korea trying to steal food and money to survive. Sungju runs into a man that he recognizes as his grandfather and he goes to live with him. He still sees his friends while living their. A man shows up to the house telling him he can take him to his father. Sungju travels with him and other men to end up in South Korea with his father. His father explains why he was sent away from Pyongyang. He said something to other soldiers that would not have been considered wrong in America but in North Korea it was considered traitorous. Sungju cannot say what it is because of the repercussions that could happen to family in North Korea. His fathers act was well known. He still has not been reunited with his mother.
This was a good book. I currently teach ESL to elementary school, middle school, and high school. This could be read to middle and high school students. However, the boys form a gang and steal food and money from people. During this time they fight other gangs for control over the rights to steal from certain markets. They also drink, smoke, and do drugs. The main character is 12 years old when he is on his own and is with the group of boys. It might be better to read excerpts of the story to middle school students. If I was reading this with ESL students, I would be cautious of the students’ backgrounds. If they have had a traumatic experience where they came from, I might not read the book.