Did you know that the DMZ, the zone between the two Koreas, is effectively a wild life refuge, and that people no one lives there, some plants and animals that live there, live no where else. So, it is not so odd a think to go and visit the observation deck and look out into it.

A very different sort of picture book, that juxtaposes the wild life with the armies that also live right on the edge of the zone.

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4517" src="https://g2comm.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-05-at-10.33.47-PM.png" alt="DMZ"  />

 <img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4516" src="https://g2comm.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-05-at-10.34.05-PM.png" alt="DMZ"  />

Good book to teach about the area, and also reflect on what has happened all these years.

Probably a little deep for a picture book, but it can also be read as a beautiful reflection on wildlife.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

This was downright bizarre. Cute drawings and classified for children, but clearly aimed towards an adult audience. I have a hard time imagining a kids book about the North/South Korean demilitarized zone on the border, but here it is!

At first, and still, I have no idea what DMZ stands for. For children reading this book, they won't understand what that is either. The book is about seasons and a grandfather that looks (longingly??) at North Korea while being in South Korea. There really isn't a point to this book except to compare the weather/climate between North and  South Korea.

When Spring Comes to the DMZ by Uk-Bae Lee is an insightful look into a place many of us never see—a demilitarized zone, in this instance, between North and South Korea—and the wildlife that call it home, the humans who peer from its perimeters wanting a unified home. Lyrical prose takes you through the seasons, sometimes through the lenses of the Observatory Grandfather visits, in territory littered with rusty machinery, tucked away landmines, and readying armies. But here there are also colorful wildflowers, sprawling vines, spawning salmon, migrating birds returning to the Imjin River to create families. The narrative sheds light on what happens when humans are not allowed in a territory—how plant and animal life carries on. It gives voice to the yearning a grandfather feels remembering when a country was whole, when a land was not a forbidden territory that marked a war past, a looming one you hope never comes. The pictures are simple, sometimes like cartoons, and the text welcoming. Maps and some history is included in the appendix. A great read for current times, a lesson on what walls do and don’t accomplish, on environmentalism.