The House Before Falling Into the Sea

Kirkus Best Books of the Year
Jane Addams Children's Book Award Finalist
2024 Freeman Book Awards
Horn Book Fanfare
***Three starred reviews***

A child and her family take in refugees during the Korean War in this poignant picture book about courage and what it really means to care for your neighbors.

Every day, more and more people fleeing war in the north show up at Kyung Tak and her family's house on the southeastern shore of Korea. With nowhere else to go, the Taks' home is these migrants' last chance of refuge "before falling into the sea," and the household quickly becomes crowded, hot, and noisy. Then war sirens cry out over Kyung's city too, and her family and their guests take shelter underground. When the sirens stop, Kyung is upset--she wishes everything could go back to the way it was before: before the sirens, before strangers started coming into their home. But after an important talk with her parents, her new friend Sunhee, and Sunhee's father, Kyung realizes something important: We're stronger when we have each other, and the kindness we show one another in the darkest of times is a gift we'll never regret.

*"A poignant tale of light in the darkness--and compassion in times of war."--Kirkus Reviews

Author: Ann Suk Wang
Publisher: Dial Books
Published: 03/12/2024
Pages: 40
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 8.90h x 10.80w x 0.40d
ISBN: 9780593530153
Audience: Ages 4-8


Review Citation(s):
Horn Book Magazine 01/01/2024 pg. 88
Kirkus Reviews 01/15/2024
Booklist 03/15/2024 pg. 81
Hornbook Guide to Children 01/01/2024 - Outstanding, Noteworthy In Style
School Library Journal 11/22/2024 pg. 1

About the Author
Ann Suk Wang, born in Korea, is a graduate of UCLA and Boston University in mass communications and a former journalist. She lives in California with a husband, two sons and a canine son. The House Before Falling Into the Sea is her first picture book.

Hanna Cha, Caldecott honor- and APALA winning-illustrator of The Truth About Dragons, is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. She spent her childhood in both Korea and America and currently lives in Boston, where she loves crinkling her nose in the early morning breeze and snuggling her tiger-like cat, Hobac. Hanna is also the illustrator of Circle Round and author-illustrator of Tiny Feet Between the Mountains.