Thin Wood Walls

by David Patneaude

Eleven-year-old Joe Hanada likes playing basketball with his best friend, Ray, writing plays and stories, and thinking about the upcoming Christmas holiday. But his world falls apart when Japanese planes bomb Pearl Harbor. His country goes to war. The FBI takes his father away. And neighbors and friends in his hometown near Seattle begin to suspect Joe, his family, and all Japanese Americans of spying for the enemy. When the government orders people of Japanese heritage living on the West Coast to move to internment camps, including Joe and his family, Joe turns to the journal his father gave him to record his thoughts and feelings.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Historical, Middle Grade, Fiction, World War II, School

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

David Patneaude began writing seriously (more or less) in the 1980s. His first novel, SOMEONE WAS WATCHING, was published in 1993. His books have been named to dozens of state young readers' lists and honored by the New York Public Library, the Society of School Librarians International, the Winnetka (Illinois) Public Library's "One Book, Two Villages" program, and the Washington State Public Library. His latest was EPITAPH ROAD, a recent nominee for the Nebraska Golden Sower Book Award. But on June 1, 2018, his newest YA novel, FAST BACKWARD, launches. Check it out! When he's not in a coffee shop writing, or at a school or library or conference discussing writing, or out on the trail thinking about writing, he's home in Woodinville, Washington, with his wife Judy, a middle school librarian.

Reviews

[Stephanie Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent work of historical fiction about the Japanese internment camps of WW2. It is geared toward a middle-grade audience, but I think anyone interested in history would like this one. Definitely would recommend it for classrooms.
An interesting observation:
The ending of this book was different from any other book about the internment that I’ve read. (No spoilers!)

[Joyce Yattoni · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this HF novel from the perspective of a 12 year old boy whose family was forced from their home and forced to relocate to a camp for Asian American citizens. This story takes place at Tule Lake where his family lived for 2.5 years shortly after the US entered WWII. Unlike other stories that have painted a more positive experience for the detainees, the author goes to great length to share the boredom, hopelessness and despair for those who lived behind the fences. Despite this, the author included little pieces of the time period to provide for its authenticity. For example, the children played marbles, read comic books, and played pick up games of baseball. This is a great novel for learning about the US policy mistakes as well as learning about the time period.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not going to lie. I shed a tear at the end of this book. I cried at the obvious part... but I also cried at the last sentence in the author's notes... maybe it's because I was emotional already? But the author was talking about how Japanese American soldiers efforts in the war had been downplayed and that in 1996 congress had requested a review of service records. They found many solders, many who were already dead, that deserved honor and awarded them the Medal of Honor. And here is the sentence that got me: "The award ceremony took place in Washington D.C., on June 21, 2000, fifty-five years after the war ended. UGH.

So this book is about one Japanese American family's journey through life during WWII, the prejudice they faced, the internment camp they were relocated to. It's all sad, and the author does a really good job of making extremely relate-able characters. I felt their pain. I also enjoyed that he wrote about this subject. The Japanese Internment Camps I feel are America's dirty little secret. Everyone is horrified about how the Nazis could have done such horrible things to the Jewish people. But we were treating our own citizens in such a similar manner. Boo America! Boo!

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found out about this book because it was a Caudill list of the past - maybe three or four years ago. It is about the Japanese internment camps during World War II.

Overall, I thought the book was pretty good. Very legitimate, very true-to-life, very real. The author did use good descriptive language, and I felt like I could really see the Tule Lake Relocation Center. I felt for the characters when things happened to them, too. I also drew a connection between this situation and the current situation with our war in the Middle East. How many people immediately treated any Middle Eastern American people like terrorists after 9/11? A lot, obviously. Although we didn't lock everyone up in camps, we haven't gotten much better in the past 60+ years.

It wasn't the most exciting book I've ever read, which is why I gave it only three stars. I like reading historical fiction because I try to see how I could use it in a classroom. I would have a hard time forcing my students to read this book though. I only read it quickly because I wanted to finish it. Like I said though, it was a pretty good book.

[Ben Kindall · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m in a reading slump and I’m not sure if it’s because of me or my reading choices, or both. This wasn’t a bad book by any means and it was certainly not an easy, happy read. I thought it was well done and might have inspired me enough to read some more historical fiction in the future.

[Marianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great read. I really enjoyed the Haiku intermingled with the plot. It is a simple story, but shows the many emotions of the Japanese interned after Pearl Harbour. Two Haiku that impacted:
Blood spills, cherry-red
From brown bodies. Do colors
Matter, in the end?

When freedom walks here
Nisei can head home at last.
When will they be free? pg. 226

It really comes together with the quote on page 215
Life had a photo of General MacArthur wading ashore in the Philippines. I studied the photo on the slime chance that Sandy could be in it. He wasn't. The same magazine had an article about German soldiers - prisoners of war - who had been captured in battle and imprisoned in Kentucky. Their prison - barbed wire, guard towers, tarpaper barracks, dirt desolate countryside - looked just like Tule lake.

How can a the US, like Canada, have let the rights of citizens be taken away just because of their last names. It remains a great tragedy of prejudice, racism and fear.

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought that Thin Wood Walls was a touching life. It brought out feelings that imitated those of Joe's. I highly recommend this book if you want to have a rounded knowledge of life in the U.S. during World War II. You should also watch the movie "Gran Torino" if your parents will allow you too. This movie is a great supplement to investigate inter-racial hatred and friendship.

[Kayleigh Sorenson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wasn't really sure what to be expecting when I started this novel but it was pretty good. I think it was very informative about Japanese Interment Camps; something that I had very little knowledge about prior to reading. Some of the book is slow but it has to be...it takes place in the camps where life is very boring. Overall, this book was an easy, good read. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about the Japanese camps in a simple way.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I enjoyed the historical portions of this book, it was slow moving for me.

[Sara]

I thought the book was good but it was very boring. I wished they hadn't spent so much time on explaining the days in the camp because it got very predictable. I also think they should have added a happier ending, such as being released from the camp and the journey to gain respect back and reuniting with their old friends.

[Casey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think that the book was very slow paced but educational.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thin Wood Walls is a historical fiction book that tells the story of the Japanese-American Hanada family and their experiences in the Mountain West during World War II.

This is a piece of American history that many teens and young adults know nothing about. During World War II, America overreacted after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. President Roosevelt ordered thousands of Japanese-Americans into prison camps by Executive Order. It is an ugly piece of American history. Families were ripped apart and pulled from the communities they were a part of.

The main character and narrator of the story is Joe Hanada. I really enjoyed seeing the events through his eyes. You really have a lot of empathy for Joe and the family as the events of the story unfold.

One of the things that I was really surprised by in the story was how the Joe's father is taken from the family very early in the story and sent to a separate prison camp for years! I had always assumed that families were just moved from their homes. I never realized that families were broken up like this. This really hit home as a father. I could not imagine how angry I would be if this had been me and my family.

I think Patneaude did an incredible job on this book. This is a must read historical fiction book for young readers.

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Japanese attack Pearl Harbor in December of 1941 and Americans of Japanese descent are eyed with suspicion and contempt by some of their former friends and neighbors. Joe and Mike Hanada have lived in Washington state all their lives with their parents and grandmother. Soon, their lives are turned upside down when their father is suddenly ‘taken away’ and the rest of the family is taken to a war relocation camp. Joe spends his time writing in his journal, waiting for letters from his father and friends far away and expressing his thoughts in haiku poetry. Mike longs for ‘freedom’ and anxiously awaits his 18th birthday so that he can join the army to show his loyalty to America. Now the family has to worry about their father and Mike. Will they ever be reunited? This fictionalized account of one of America’s most embarrassing moments is fraught with tragedy and triumph, love and hate, enemies and allies. Prejudice never wins, but answering prejudice with loyalty is undeniably courageous.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Thin Wood Walls" tells the story of 11-year-old Joe Hanada, who lives in Washington state during WWII. Everything changes for Joe's family, which is of Japanese descent, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. His dad is sent away to a prison camp, for no real reason. Within a few months, Joe, his mom, grandma, and older brother Michael are forced to leave their home and move to a different prison camp. You'll feel the suffocating loss of freedom that Japanese Americans experienced at the time. It was sad to read about Joe's patriotism, and Michael's. Michael wanted to serve in the army (hard to imagine, since the US had treated his family so poorly), but he was unable to until near the end of the book, and of the war.

Finally, Joe's dad is reunited with the family. But an easy-to-predict tragedy prevents much happiness. I found this fictional account an interesting introduction to an aspect of US history I knew little about. It's billed as a YA book, but it's excellent for adults as well.

[Erik Schneider · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought that "Thin Wood Walls" was a great book. The setting of the book begins in Washinton, and then changes later on in the book when the Hanadas, the main character's family, goes to an internment camp. The Hanadas are in an internment camp because they're Japanese.The father is taken away first by the FBI, and put in a camp. Later on, the rest of the Hanadas are put in a camp, which is a different one than the father's camp. During this time, Mike and Joe, the main characters, learn a few lessons in the intermnet camp they stay at. Mike is really upset because he wants to prove to others that he's an American, and then he joins the war.

I'd recommend this book to people who like historical fiction because the reader also would have to understand why the US government put the Japanese in camps. If you like this book, you may also enjoy reading is "Ragdolls" by:Henry Golde because it's a real life holocaust survivor's story.

[Selena · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an Asian-American, I find this a rather sensitive subject in US history, and Thin Wood Walls did not disappoint in telling it. The author does a pretty good job of adding emotion (both sad and happy) in the story. The overall writing is good, the haiku's are wonderful, and the mix of feelings ties everything together very well. I will admit, towards the end of the book, I had to listen to "My Most Precious Treasure" from Angel Beats! because it completely tied in with the story. But still, I had a few complaints when I was finished. Mainly, being that the time lapses were a bit rushed and that there were a few (but just a few) events that seem trivial compared to the major plot. But I guess that the author needed to fill in some of those gaps. Overall, this is one of the better and more genuine historical fiction books I've read, and is worth reading.

[Susan Dunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

11-year-old Joe and his family live in the White River Valley in Washington. Joe and his older brother were born in American, but his parents and grandmother (who lives with them) were all born in Japan. There are lots of other Japanese families in the neighborhood too, but lately, as the war overseas with Japan and Germany fighting against the allies, Joe and the others have been getting some unfriendly looks. But when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor it all gets much worse. Joe's father, active in the local Japanese Association, is taken away for questioning and then sent away. The family is eventually forced to give up their home, pack only what they can carry, and themselves be relocated. The injustice of this terrible time in American history is really brought home by Joe's story. Pair this one with Weedflower.

[Dallas Dickson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book because it not only showed how we acted when the Japanese bombed us at Pearl Harbor but how we acted to the citizens that were also Japanese that were in the U.S. I think anyboby would like this book because it shows how a 13 year old Japanese boy named Joe Hananda and his family were able to have the patience to wait for the good and not be stuck on all that was going on around him. I learned that if you can learn to keep patient you will suceed in the long run.

Houghton Mifflin always kept me guessing about what was going to happen next which made me stay comited to reading his fantastick book. So to wrap it all up in one sentence, Thin Wood Walls is a great book with an even better moral.

[Cinnamon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joe is an average kid growing up in the early 1940s in Washington state, until the United States enters WWII after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Now all Japanese Americans on the west coast are treated as suspect. Joe's father, a leader in his community, is taken away by the FBI on suspicion of helping the Japanese. Then Joe's family is told they must leave their home. They must join an internment camp, a place the government has set up so Japanese Americans can be watched all the time. Joe must leave his best friend and his hometown for Tule Lake Camp in California. How can a person keep having faith when everything you know is taken away and everyone treats you like you are a traitor? Joe must battle this feeling of hopelessness everyday.

[+Chaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Patneaude is able to capture something seldom done when a Caucasian attempts to write of another race’s perspective. Patneaude has done just that. Not by imagining but by researching, talking to the Japanese Americans in detail not just for facts, but for feeling, taste, sound, and sorrow. Having also researched the same subject and interviewed some of the some people I am amazed that he is able to capture the heart of a child, and let him live to tell the story that all of us are capably of infecting on others because fear. The book is written for teenagers, but I would hope that everyone here in the States, and around the world could read it. Sorrow and fear knows no boundary.

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this with my class as a read-a-loud because David Patneaude came to visit our school this year. It was a relevant and important topic in Washington State History, and my kids developed a wealth of background knowledge about Japanese internment from their experience with this historical fiction novel. The characters were well-developed and the story well-told (I was brought to tears when reading one part with the kids). The only reasons I docked it a star were because it was a bit choppy as a read-a-loud (his style has many short sentences) and the ending didn't leave me entirely fulfilled closure-wise.

[Alice B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a quick read, but a gripping tale. it is about a eleven year old Joe who lives in Seattle in the 1940's. In December, when Pearl Harbor is bombe, all people of Japanese heritage are forced into internment camps. Joe spends a long to at Tule Lake War Relocation Camp, worrying about his father, who was taken off by the FBI, and his brother, who joined the amy to prove his loyalty. This is a story about a young boy who goes through more than most adults, and has some of the most courage ever seen.

[Don · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fine treatment of the topic (Japanese internment camps).

What makes it especially readable is the specific Northwest connection, what makes it an annoying read is the too-appropriate "hurry-up-and-wait" boredom that the protagonist has to live through, and what makes it downright memorable is the way this story presents all-too-clearly how "nothing will ever be the same again."

This is technically a book for "young teens," but that's mostly because the main character is a youngster, not because it stays clear of some of the touchiest issues.

This is a very good book.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, I would give this book 4.5 stars. It seemed to move slowly when I first started to read it, but really picked up once Joe and his family were sent away from their home. One ting that really made me upset, but in a way made me really like the book, was that Mike died in the end. It really sent a true message about war: not everyone gets a happy ending. This made the ending of the book bittersweet, a word that was mentioned a lot throughout the book. Thin Wood Walls is a great book, most likely because of the realities it shows of the affects of World War II.

[Kaitlyn Reynolds · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thin woood walls gave the point of view of a young Japanese boy and his family being evacuated of their home. The Pearl Harbor attack lead many to believe that ALL Japanese peple to be dangerous. It was able to portray in a clear manner that not people disliked the Japanese Americans because of what their people did. There is a very sad ending along with a heart-warming resolution. I would recommend this to anyone who likes historical fictions or to anyone who just wanted to read a reallygood book.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

outstanding historical novel of a young Japanese American boy who is uprooted from his home and sent to an internment camp with his family. beautifully tells the story of the injustice that was brought upon the Japanese in the west during WWII. One of the key things that hit me as an American Soldier was the tasking given to do death notifications into the internment camps of Japanese Soldiers who had given their lives in combat--the contrast was painful to read but and hit close to home for me. well worth the read!

[Bryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to this book, I've learned for the first time that there were Japanese concentration camps in the US during World War II. This book is full of drama. The words are strong since it's based from real accounts of life during the war. This book is like a lighter version of The Diary of a Young Girl. Just like Anne Frank, Joe also writes about the war, his family, his experiences and the people in the concentration camp. This book is very real. The emotions. The tears (I almost cried). The humanity.

[Barbara L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Touching, engaging story about an eleven year old Japanese American boy and his family in the US during World War II. Gives the reader insight into this under-addressed and shameful episode in American history as well as illustrating the injustice of prejudice. Beautiful language, wonderful haiku! I loved this book both for the historical perspective and the beautiful prose. Highly recommend it for all ages.

[Sal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this book because Pearl Habor and World War two are my favorite thing to learn about. This book reminds me of The Boy at War because that book was about the same thing but it was switched around. The genre of this book is historical fiction because this book is about stuff that could of happened but it dindn't. I rate this book five stars because it was so good any way you put it. Thats why I liked the book.

[Ginny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding fiction, based on fact, on how the country perceived the Japanese living in the United States after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and their life for the next 10 years. Imagine the family next door picked up and sent to live behind barbed wired fences without any having committed any crime but because they were Japanese. Patneaude's deep and sensitive treatment has you cheering and weeping throughout.