Alternating timelines tell the story of Myung-gi as a nine-year-old living with his parents and sister in the Korean north following the Soviet occupation, and as a 16-year-old soldier for the Republic of Korea Army (ROKA) in 1952, trapped in a collapsed tunnel. Seven years earlier, Myung-gi, an avid reader, treasures the forbidden novels Ahpa secretly brings home for him. As life under Communist rule becomes more oppressive and the Korean War begins, Ahpa secretly plans their family’s escape to the south. On a day when Myung- gi was supposed to be keeping watch but is distracted by a book, Ahpa is taken by North Korean soldiers. Myung-gi, his sister, and his mother make the treacherous journey south, hoping Ahpa escaped and they can reunite with him in Busan, but Ahpa never arrives. In the years that follow they live in a make-shift home, earning money for food any way they can. Myung-gi’s guilt over Ahpa’s capture fuels his decision to the join the army; in battle after only ten days of training, he ends up trapped in the dark tunnel along with an “enemy” soldier. Facing death, he accepts that he’s unlikely to ever be reunited with Ahpa. In an epilogue, an elderly Ahpa, still living in North Korea, receives a smuggled copy of Myung- gi’s memoir and learns that his son now lives in the United States. This companion novel to the earlier Brother’s Keeper was inspired by the author’s desire to recognize child soldiers of the Korean War. (Ages 10–14