LITTLE SISTER TAI-MAI

The ready sympathies of beginning readers will be captured by this short book. Norwegian Trina, who found her Arab brother Tamar in the author's last book (Trina Finds A Brother 1962 p. 913-J269) gains a sister from Korea. Trina's family plans a trip to Korea in the father's ship. For suspense, the story alternates between the solid comfort of Norwegian family life (into which Tamar is settling happily) and the five year old Tai-Mai, solitary survivor of a farm family wiped out during the Korean fighting. It was a winter raid and the little girl wandered from her empty village with Chang, a dog, who helped to keep her warm in the fishing boat into which she finally crept after a day's march. An elderly Korean, by courtesy ""Grandpa"", found and cared for Tai-Mai in his boat until she fell ill. He then took her to a Norwegian hospital and stayed on with the dog. You can guess the rest. Idealized and with an obvious message, our guess is that most little girls will respond and read on with hope to the tightly tucked happy ending.