The Long Season of Rain

The Long Season of Rain by Helen Kim takes place in 1969 in Seoul, Korea. The main character, Junehee Lee, an eleven-year-old girl, tells a first person narrative about her childhood during the one changma, or the season of heavy rain in Korea.  After a landslide that wipes out an entire village, the only remaining survivor, Pyungsoo, an eleven-year-old boy, comes to live with Junehee, her three sisters, her mother, and grandmother. Her mother instantly becomes attached to the boy, because he fulfills her secret longing for a son. However, Junehee’s grandmother does everything possible to get Pyungsoo out of the house, because he is poor and disrupts the peace in the house. When Junehee’s father comes back from the army, he puts further stress on the family, telling Keehee she is too fat at the age of six, yelling at and disrespecting his own mother, and blatantly ignoring his wife. Junehee’s mother often cries and speaks to Junehee about how she is underappreciated and treated as if an object. Junehee quickly realizes that she will someday be taken away from her home, married off, and sent to live with her husband’s family. After the grandmother secretly gives away Pyungsoo, her mother runs away, leaving them all notes to be strong and good girls.  Junehee goes to find her mother and asks her to come home with no success. Eventually, her father and the rest of the family go and find her mother too. He seems to appreciate her more and she comes back to live with the family.

This book was a really easy and interesting read. It was well written and had a good balance of dialogue and description. I didn’t know much about Korean culture before reading this book, but it explained the traditions and culture in a simple way. I think it would be really great to study the culture of Korea in a History class as the students are reading the book in their English class. I would recommend The Long Season of Rain for early middle school. My one criticism is that it mainly surrounds issues concerning girls, motherhood, and marriage, which may not appeal to boys in the class. It also sometimes depicts males in a poor light. I think this would be an ideal book for independent reading or small group reading!

Kim, Helen. The Long Season of Rain. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1996. Print.