The Boy from Clearwater, Book 1

September 15, 2023
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* The stupendous achievements here are many: a synergistic literary success; a historic record of twentieth-century Taiwan; the remarkable account of a boy's life; and a triumph of translation by gifted polyglot King, who artfully rendered the Taiwanese Hoklo, Mandarin Chinese, and Japanese in the original. Once upon a time, there was a town called 清水--its pronunciation varied depending on the victor's language--but the meaning remained the same: "clear water." The boy is 蔡焜霖, whose name also has multiple pronunciations, but for book one, he's Tshua Khun-lim; today, he's a nonagenarian survivor of Taiwan's White Terror era (1947-87), which resulted in widespread imprisonment and executions. Yu and Zhou meticulously distill the story of how Khun-lim, the studious eighth of 10 children in a once-prosperous family, survives a brutal, unwarranted 10-year sentence as a political traitor for joining a school book club. Part 1 presents Khun-lim's childhood, idyllic despite tumultuous upheavals. Yu's text is minimal throughout, sometimes as spare as a single speech bubble on the page. Zhou uses splashes of pink to enhance exquisite black-and-white drawings. With Khun-lim's imprisonment in part 2, Zhou darkens the pages, the fine lines of part 1 morphing into heavy woodcuts, emphasizing Khun-lim's sense of suffocation. Yu, Zhou, and King complementarily create an exemplary tribute to an extraordinary hero.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

October 2, 2023
Told in two parts, this haunting true story by Yu chronicles a resilient boy’s experience navigating turbulent times in Taiwan. Part one, “The Boy Who Loves to Read,” recounts how Tsai Kun-Lin (1930–2023) was born in Taichung during the 1930s Japanese occupation of Taiwan. His ordinary yet happy upbringing, rendered in soft b&w pencil art with pink accents, is filled with music and friendship. As natural disasters such as earthquakes devastate his region, and as war looms, his once joyful childhood gives way to air raids, conscription, and a feeling that his future in Taiwan was bleak—a nightmare manifested when, at 19, Tsai is arrested and tortured on false charges. Part two, “Ten Years on Green Island,” follows Tsai’s arrival to a correctional facility on Green Island as one of many victims of China’s political oppression of Taiwanese peoples called the White Terror. Zhou’s illustrations reflect the story’s dark turn, morphing into inky, deco, noir-inspired art shot through with blue shocks of color. This harrowing debut, which depicts an underreported period in Taiwan’s history, is informative and inspiring for Tsai’s ebullient hope and resilience. Footnotes add historical context throughout; a concluding timeline provides further information. Ages 12–up.

November 1, 2023

Gr 7 Up- The Boy from Clearwater is a subtle examination of a life sculpted outwardly by circumstance and internally by self-preservation. Tsai Kun-lin, born in Japanese-occupied Taiwan in 1930, spoke Hoklo Taiwanese at home, was educated in Japanese, and observed life events and seasonal shifts with a mix of Buddhist and Shinto traditions. He enjoyed a peaceful childhood filled with familial affection and dragonfly-gazing. As World War II came to a head, Tsai and his peers were drafted as "student soldiers" in Japan's service. When Japan surrendered, the island was ceded to the Republic of China's government in exile. Education in Mandarin and increasing efforts at ideological control swiftly replaced Japanese language and customs. In this new environment, a brief stint in a high school book club lands Tsai, much to his disbelief, in a government reeducation camp for an entire decade. Tsai's life story skillfully demonstrates how greatly sociopolitical upheavals beyond Taiwan's borders affected the course of life for its people. A particularly shocking moment comes when Tsai reveals he knew barely anything about Mao's Communist Revolution until he was already imprisoned for being a Communist spy. Visually idyllic, elegant illustrations of Tsai's youth give way to dark wood-block style illustrations communicating the heavy strictures of imprisonment. VERDICT A story of persistence, both hopeful and chilling, and a powerful vision of the personal implications of Taiwan's mid-century history.-Emilia Packard

Copyright 2023 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.