Banned Book Club

 

Banned Book Club

By Zachary Grago, Isis Gomez, Ofelia Figueroa, Ori Harder, and Jorge Gutierrez

Biography

Kim Hyun Sook was born in Changwon, South Korea. Growing up in South Korea, she worked at her family’s restaurant and convinced her traditional mother it was a good idea for her to go to college. She attended Anjeon University in 1983 and unknowingly joined a banned book club. As a literature major, her first book choice was The Scarlet Letter. After coming to grips with the reality of censorship in her country, her passion grew as she became an active advocate for great works of illicit literature. After experiencing a suppressive government, and overcoming the challenges that came with living in South Korea, she decided to write about her experience. Her husband, Ryan Estrada, is a comic artist and writer who helped her translate her story into a graphic novel.

Ryan Estrada was born on November 20, 1980 in Detroit, Michigan. He began submitting his work to newspapers at the young age of six. Ten years later, at age sixteen, he was hired by one of the newspaper agencies starting his career as a comic author. In the interview from Rich In Color, Ryan begins, “I always love collaborating with amazing people! But I could not think of a better experience than working with my cool wife!”. Kim Hyun Sook had a story to tell and he could help her tell it. Their collaboration came easily, they would go out on dates and discuss the details of Hyun Sook’s story. Ryan is an artist but considering this was a Korean story they decided it would be best to collaborate with a Korean artist, Ko Hyung-Ju.

Fun Facts

• They now live in Busan, South Korea with their cat, Dog Baby.

• Kim Hyun Sook translated Lady Rainicorn’s dialogue for Adventure Time comics.
• Ryan Estrada continues his career as a comic writer. Some of his most known work includes:
• Creator-Owned Classics: Aki Alliance, The Kind
• About His Adventures: Ryan Made Mistakes, Plagues, Satyagraha, Ryan Vs the Man
• Collaboration: Star Trek, Popeyes, Garfield

Sources

    Crystal, et al. “Q&A With Kim Hyun Sook and Ryan Estrada.” Rich in Color, 6 Apr. 2020, richincolor.com/2020/04/qa-with-kim-hyun-sook-and-ryan-estrada/.

    Kim, Hyun Sook. “Banned Book Club.” Amazon, Iron Circus Comics, 2020, www.amazon.com/Banned-Book-Club-Hyun-Sook/dp/194582042X/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=banned%2Bbook%2Bclub&qid=1620347534&sr=8-1.

    McKinney, DW, and By. “Review: Banned Book Club, by Kim Hyun Sook and Ryan Estrada.” The Mantle, www.themantle.com/literature/review-banned-book-club-kim-hyun-sook-and-ryan-estrada.

“Ryan Estrada.” IMDb, www.imdb.com/name/nm1134106/bio?ref_=nmbio_ql_1.

Book Review

Banned Book Club is the story of Kim Hyun Sook, a woman facing the struggles with identity and politics during the fascist regime of South Korea in 1983. This graphic novel falls under the category, political memoirs for young adults, by granting the reader insight on the political struggles in South Korea’s fascist government. This novel has themes of identity, politics, resistance, and the ability to find one’s voice amidst the chaos of government totalitarianism. Hyun Sook faces internal conflict in her desire to push herself out of the poverty she has grown up in, but also refusing to be further silenced and abused by the corrupt police officers and government officials who desire power over their peoples’ voices. By choosing to join The Banned Book Club, Hyun Sook is allowed the opportunity to further educate herself and push for change in the world around her. The ideas centered around her family dynamic and meek voice. transitioning into what ends up being the voice to help them all is admirable for the young audience. Her ability to stand up to the police that have been kidnapping, abusing, and torturing her peers in an effort to stand for what’s right is what makes her story so inspiring. Hyun Sook’s words translate to action and allow her and her club to move towards the change they desired. She, the student, then becomes the teacher in order to share her voice and experience for all generations that follow after her. This novel creates an understanding of the potential for change that students have when they find their voices. The illustrations allow us, not only to read these themes, but to witness them as Hyun Sook did.

Banned Book Club is beautifully illustrated by Ryan Estrada as a graphic novel. This medium is enticing for young adults, as the images give a view into what she remembers experiencing. Similar to reading comics or watching anime, this medium gives us the images to interpret, instead of expecting the reader to interpret the imagery and then the text. The black and white images and text gives it’s reader insight to the censorship of fascist South Korean government. Through these illustrations, we can see the anger held by the totalitarian government, as it is expressed through Agent Ok, who represents this government. Through the illustrations we can see how chaotic the rights are (p. 11). We can also see the stress and exhaustion on the faces of the banned book club (p. 85), as they miss the bus, have stress from school, and are trying to fix a broken government as college students.

Instructional Resources

1. South Korean Protests (Images)
Images to support the construction of Comic Panels. Reference images of South Korean Protests.

    -Shutterstock. “Gwangju Gwangju Jeollamandosouth Korea August 10 Stock Photos.” Shutterstock.Com, 2021, www.shutterstock.com/search/protest+in+seoul+south+korea.

2. Interview with Kim Hyun Sook and Ryan Estrada
This is a great resource because the interview is formatted as a comic.

    -Crystal, et al. “Q&A With Kim Hyun Sook and Ryan Estrada.” Rich in Color, 6 Apr. 2020, richincolor.com/2020/04/qa-with-kim-hyun-sook-and-ryan-estrada/.

3. South Korean Military Expands Book Blacklist
This article outlines how the banned book list has undergone military inspection and anything considered "seditious publications" will be confiscated immediately.

    -“Military Expands Book Blacklist.” Military Expands Book Blacklist : National : News : The Hankyoreh, english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/301730.html.

4. How to Create a Comic Book- Neil Gaiman
In this site, Neil Gaiman highlights the elements that a comic includes and gives a step by step guide to making one with the help of his examples, outlines and given structure.

    -Gaiman, Neil. "How to Create a Comic Book: Neil Gaiman's Step-by-Step Guide for Comic Books". MasterClass.com. 5 May 2021, www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-create-a-comic-book-step-by-step-guide-for-making-your-own-comics.

5. Government throughout Times in South Korea
This video articulates the government systems that took place throughout history and demonstrates what South Korea went through to get to where it is now.

    - 대한민국역사박물관. “Democracy in South Korea (49min).” YouTube, uploaded by Korea History Museum, 10 Jan. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bamd-GpJvdo.

6. How violent protests in South Korea became a thing of the past
This article shows the progress made through South Korea's protests of a totalitarian government in the 1980's. This is an instructional resource, as it shows the power behind unity and speaking out against injustice. This book has an ambiguous ending, so it will help the students to see the result of their protests.

      -Strother, J. “How Violent Protests in South Korea Became a Thing of the Past.” The World, 2 July 2020, www.pri.org/stories/2020-07-02/how-violent-protests-south-korea-became-thing-past.

7. Asian Americans and Education
This research paper works as an excellent resource for educators, in that it gives insight to Asian American culture. It addresses the issue of the term, Asian American, being used as an umbrella term. It gives insight on how to better educate our students on Asian American culture, by naming each culture in their own right and giving the appropriate background on each culture.

    -Chang, Benjamin. “Asian Americans and Education.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education, 2017. ERIC, eric.ed.gov/?id=ED577104.

8. College Life in America vs Korea
This article details both the educational and societal differences between American and Korean college life and processes.

    -Sohwi Lim·How-To & Guides·June 26, 2017·5 min read, et al. “College Life In America vs. Korea.” 10 Magazine Korea, 17 June 2020, 10mag.com/college-life-in-america-vs-korea/.

Goals of Lesson Plan

• Students will be able to critically analyze the novel and use what they learned from it in order to apply it to their own ideas of education

• Students will be able to interpret and comprehend the novel’s themes of justice, freedom of speech, and individuality

• Students will acknowledge the ability their voices and choices will have on their government and education systems

• Students will recognize how individuality and seeking knowledge outside of particular boundaries is useful in furthering self-awareness

• Have students identify a banned book they are interested in and interpret what about this book would be considered problematic and what about this book would be useful in furthering their education

California Common Core Standards: 

ELA Standards- Reading Literature

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.1: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.6: Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the United States, drawing on a wide reading of world literature.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.8: Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the usefulness of each source in answering the research question; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation including footnotes and endnotes.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.4: Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically (using appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation) such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose (e.g., argument, narrative, informative, response to literature presentations), audience, and task.

Description of Lesson

-This lesson will take place after the assigned reading is completed. To begin, the students will be assigned into groups of three or four. Then, they will spend 5-10 minutes choosing a book from an assigned list of the three, currently banned books in South Korea. Then they will spend about fifteen to twenty minutes choosing a theme that might be banned from their chosen text. They will choose the potentially banned theme based on a scholarly review, due to time constraints. After this, they will spend about twenty minutes developing a comic strip of a scene relating to the theme of their chosen banned text. Throughout the remainder of the class the students will do a group presentation of their comic, but more importantly, explain the importance of this theme and why it shouldn't be banned (ex. how does it relate to young adults, how is this theme important to that specific country, etc...)

Activity

Activity Handout