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<\/a>Consider the documentary \u201cUnder the Sun,\u201d written and directed by Ukrainian-born Vitaliy Manskiy, who was given a script by the DPRK but smuggled out unedited footage to show his side of the story.<\/p>\n
This film follows Zin-Mi, an 8-year-old from a Pyongyang family, as she is accepted into the Korean Children\u2019s Union and prepares for the annual celebration of Kim Jong Il\u2019s birthday.<\/p>\n
Zin-Mi is very serious, perhaps even overwhelmed, about her responsibility to her government. As director Manskiy told the Los Angeles Times, \u201cIn the Soviet Union, people still had private lives. In North Korea, people don\u2019t belong to themselves.\u201d It\u2019s not clear that Zin-Mi has personal wants, especially those that don\u2019t directly benefit the Kim dynasty.<\/p>\n \u201cEscape from Camp 14: One man’s remarkable odyssey from North Korea to freedom in the West,\u201d a biography of Shin Dong-hyuk written by Blaine Harden, can be understood as truth with an invisible thread of omission, guilt, and trauma woven through it.<\/p>\n Shin is viewed by the West as a na\u00efve but idealistic youth who bravely escaped the only home he had known \u2014 a prison camp in North Korea\u2019s frozen mountains \u2014 because of visions of city life described by a fellow inmate. Shin and his family had labored within the confines of barbed wire until his brother and mother were killed and Shin resolved to make it out alone.<\/p>\n Later, after the 2012 publication of this book, Shin admitted to Harden that he betrayed his family and caused their deaths by execution when they had planned to escape, because he was angry that his mother was taking his brother instead of himself.<\/p>\n Shin\u2019s unreliability as a narrator is a symptom of the dark self-preservation that prevails in many stories of captivity, not just those from North Korea.<\/p>\n Outside of prison camps, however, there are cracks in the seemingly-impenetrable dome that covers the DPRK. \u201cNorth Korea\u2019s Hidden Revolution: How the information underground is transforming a closed society\u201d by Jieun Baek shows how technology has made it easier for South Korean soap operas, news, and other media to be sent to North Korea via DVD or USB drive.<\/p>\n Knowledge about the world outside North Korea, and reports of the luxuries enjoyed by General Kim Jong Un, foster distrust in the dictatorship. Such revelations won\u2019t undercut North Korean government all at once, but they begin to erode the fear that is the basis for North Korean citizens\u2019 compliance. Baek closes the book with an analysis of reunification and the possibilities for undermining the North Korean regime. These titles are all available for borrowing or request from the La Mesa Library at sdcl.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As summer reading ends, the La Mesa Library continues to foster learning outside of classrooms and homes by providing educational afterschool programs for children and their families.<\/p>\n During the summer, we partnered with Maker Camp (makercamp.com) and provided activities for kids to explore STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics). During the La Mesa Library Maker Camp, kids learned soldering, designed a 3-D keychain using Tinkercad (an open source software tool), and created circuits using LEDs.<\/p>\n On Wednesdays at 4 p.m. during the school year, we\u2019re offering a Science Club with hands-on experiments that teach science in a fun setting, and the Advanced Makers program with different activities that foster technological and motor skills. Programs like these hold kids\u2019 attention and inspire them to use creativity and collaboration along with technology.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>Afterschool Wednesdays at the library<\/strong><\/h3>\n