Korea
When Spring Comes to the DMZ
By Lee Uk-Bae, Chungyon Won and Aileen Won (Translators), Lee Uk-Bae (Illustrator)
When Spring Comes to the DMZ. Lee Uk-Bae. Translated by Chungyon Won and Aileen Won. lllustrated by Lee Uk-Bae. Plough Publishing House, 2019. Originally published in Korean. ISBN 978-0874869729. 40p. (Ages 5-8). Picture book.
A Batchelder honor book, When Spring Comes to the DMZ was a Korean contribution to the Peace Picture Book Project, a cross-national collaboration among picture book writers and illustrators from Japan, China and Korea. Lee’s book invites readers to view the amazing natural beauty that has developed in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the narrow strip of land between North and South Korea where people are still not allowed to go. Landscapes are punctured by rusting tanks and barbed wire, subtly reminding the reader of the war that separated and continues to separate the two Koreas. [dj]