Dust of Eden

by Mariko Nagai

CCBC Choices 2015
One of 25 of the best new middle grade novels, The Christian Science Monitor
Best Older Fiction of 2014, Chicago Public Library
2016 Arnold Adoff New Voices Poetry Award, Honor Book

What do you do when your country goes to war―and everyone thinks you're the enemy?

"We lived under a sky so blue in Idaho right near the towns of Hunt and Eden but we were not welcomed there." In early 1942, thirteen-year-old Mina Masako Tagawa and her Japanese-American family are sent from their home in Seattle to an internment camp in Idaho. What do you do when your home country treats you like an enemy? This memorable and powerful novel in verse, written by award-winning author Mariko Nagai, explores the nature of fear, the value of acceptance, and the beauty of life. As thought-provoking as it is uplifting, Dust of Eden is told with an honesty that is both heart-wrenching and inspirational.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Poetry, Middle Grade, Young Adult, Historical, World War II, Novel In Verse

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Binibining `E (of The Ugly Writers) · Rating 4 out of 5]

"In the middle, a jagged half of a heart. She pulled her sweater down, See, I have half a heart too. And whenever we are together, we have a whole heart. Only then do the two halves become one."

This short book has the power to make me sad and make me cry. Leaving Basho behind, damn makes me shed tears. I'm so sad reading this but I can't put it down. The story of Mina and his family was just cruel, what happened to her father was just unbelievable. The grandfather I adore, he's just so quiet and loveable. I love how he tends to his roses and thus he never forgets them until he died. Children also are somewhat the victims in this war, because they're Japanese people look at them very differently, although they are mixed bloods they're still treated differently by some people. At the end they still did go back to where they belong but of course things always change.

"We were all sad, but put on smiling faces, like we did not care, like our hearts were not breaking, though if you listened hard, if you ignored the engines, you could hear thousands of hearts breaking, shattering, into pieces."

[Julie (Let's Read Good Books) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars

Mina's voice is appropriately confused and angry when her family is rounded up and shipped off to an internment camp for Americans of Japanese ancestry. With her life turned on end, her family and her heart broken, she has to come to terms with what it means to be an American in a country that no longer accepts her because of the paranoia following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Compelling and emotional read about an embarrassing episode in our history. Have we learned from this? I certainly hope so.

[Hailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was extremely depressing. It’s terrible that they were treated the way they were. Racism just pushes me the wrong way. I really don’t like it.
Overall this book was good. I didn’t read it like a poem though. Also, she didn’t say weather they got the cat back or not so, I’m assuming that they did.
I give this book a four star rating because it was depressing, but good. Extremely engaging.

[Laura Cushing · Rating 4 out of 5]

This excellent young adult book is told from the point of view of a young Japanese American girl named Mina who is sent to an interment camp with her family during World War II. The family consists of the girl, an older brother, mother, father and grandfather. Each of them reacts to the interment in different ways, showing a variety of feelings from hopelessness to resignation, anger and sadness at what their country is doing to them.

The story includes letters that Mina writes to her best friend, and essays she writes in class at the interment camp. It also in later chapters includes letters from her brother. This makes the story seem very real.

I highly recommend this book, not only for young adults, but for anyone who wants to learn more about this horrible period in our history and what was done to citizens who meant no harm to no one in the name of keeping America 'safe'.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book because It was detailed and told a lot about what was happening. It was also cool that it was from the point of view of a little girl. I thought it was cool that the author included the notes she was sending to her friend.

[Julia Bickford · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the beginning of this book it seems boring but then when you keep reading it started to get really interresting. This book reminding me of the book The Boy in the Striped pajamas because I feel like they had the same back story. It was about the men going to war and the women not wanting them to go. It was about the German vs the Jewish. Also they both have someone dying at the end of the book. I feel like if you like books writing like novels you will like this book.

[Rakia Pierre · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was a ok book it wasn't my favorite book but I didn't't really care for it.

[QNPoohBear · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thirteen year-old Mina Masako Tagawa is practicing with the church Sunday School choir when she learns the Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor. Suddenly Mina's whole world is upended. Her father is arrested and sent to jail and Mina doesn't know why. Mina, her brother, their mother and beloved grandfather are sent to an internment camp for Japanese-Americans. Her mother is forced to work for the first time, her brother is angry and her grandfather is lost without rich, brown soil to plant roses in. Mina Masako has no idea why this is happening. She always considered herself as American as her best friend Jamie but now she's not so sure. What does it mean to be American?

I knew a story about the Japanese internment during WWII was not going to be uplifting and I am not a big fan of novels in verse, so I went into this thinking I would not enjoy it. I was proven wrong by the compelling characters and the debate over what makes an American. Some parts of the story, toward the end, made me tear up quite a bit. A Japanese internment story is something everyone in the United States should be required to read, especially now.

I really liked the voice of the main character Mina Masako. One minute she's a teenage girl who loves her cat and her family and the next she's labeled a "Jap", an enemy, just because her grandfather was born in Japan. Mina usually goes by her English name and even though she is bilingual, her Japanese isn't great. She speaks it at home and now it is forbidden. Their very identities are taken away from them-or are they? What is her identity is the central question of this novel. Mina Masako wonders whether she's American Mina or Japanese Masako. She asks what it means to be American and why would she want to be American if America has turned their backs on her? Masako is conflicted while her grandfather just accepts whatever will happen will happen and the mistake will be remedied quickly. Her older brother is angry and bitter. I really understood how they both felt and I can't imagine being in that position.

I could relate to Masako's special relationship with her grandfather. He is a dear old man who works hard and loves his family. They share a special bond over her grandfather's garden of splendid roses and cherry trees. Mina's parents are a little less developed than her grandfather. As first generation Japanese-Americans they trust the government to do what is right for the country and don't question things. They are more traditionally Japanese in their outlook while the children, born and raised in America, struggle more with the horrible treatment they must endure.

The author's blank verse style doesn't allow for a whole lot of description of life in an internment camp. I've read other, more detailed stories but this is the only one I've read that really debates what it means to be American and how to be American. I recommend this one to begin with for ages 12-13 and then other stories for older readers and Farewell to Manzanar and Related Readings for adults.

Paper Wishes
Journey to Topaz: A Story of the Japanese-American Evacuation and Journey Home
The Fences Between Us: The Diary of Piper Davis, Seattle, Washington, 1941

[HJ Shirley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure why I didn't love this one. It is one of three books I have read since the summer about the Japanese internment camps during WWII. It is written in verse. I don't feel that the protagonist was well developed, and that may be why it earned a 3 out of 5. I just didn't feel or connect with what she was going through.

The one thing that really stands out with all three of the books I have read (The War Outside and Farewell to Manzanar being the other two) is the dismantling of the family unit for those sent to the camps.

[Marit · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's coming to the end of the school year and I needed a quick HF book so Mrs. Morgan told me to read this and I did. I didn't hate it. I thought it was kinda cute. It's about living with the the fact that many people hate you because of who you are. You can't change the fact that that's who you are but you want to change it. It's a strong and powerful short story.

[Katy Wineke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful.

While I enjoy novels in verse, I typically find that they miss details: that is not the case here. Nagai is a poet and it shows--this novel is better because of the beauty of her poems.

[Tara Ethridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this sparse novel in verse about Japanese internment camps, and it’s perfect for upper elementary and middle school. It did a good job of explaining the difficulties and injustices of that time period and also has a strong element of Japanese culture. A good fit for readers who are diving into historical fiction.

[Jody Kyburz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Japanese Internment. I keep visiting the sites of the camps and reading more about it. This is a quick read, novel in verse. I don't recall hearing this before, but in Seattle, all the Chinese people wore buttons that said, "I'm Chinese." This was to let others know that they weren't responsible for the bombing of Pearl Harbor--"I'm not the enemy." I'm so grateful I lived in Japan for 17 months of my life and learned to speak the language and understand the hearts of some of the people as well as a little something about the culture.

[Alex Baugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

The experience of Japanese Americans who were rounded up and placed in internment camps throughout the United States in areas isolated from the rest of society are a varied as the individuals themselves. But they do have some things in common - confusion, anger, humiliation, loss of identity, inhumane conditions and dust, incredible amounts of dust due to the isolated areas these camps were built in. And we find all of these things in Miriko Nagai's forthcoming novel Dust of Eden.

Mina Masako Tagawa, 12, was living a pretty contented life in Seattle, Washington in 1941 with her parents, older brother Nick and grandfather. But when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Mina soon discovers that, with the exception of her best friend Jamie, old friends are now new enemies. Soon her father is taken into custody, merchants refuse to sell food ro them, kids in school hiss the words Jap and go home at Masako.

In February 1942, President Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066 and before they know it, the Tagawa family is temporarily relocated to a place called Camp Puyallup Assembly Center, euphemistically called Camp Harmony. A former fair site, the Tagawas are placed in a former horse stall, and given bags to fill with hay to sleep on.

Living conditions are terrible, but in August 1942 the family is moved to the Minidoka Relocation Center in Hunt, Idaho. Eventually a makeshift school is set up that Masako attends. Nick begins to not come home before curfew and is angry all the time, and mother gets a job washing dishes. Eventually, Masako's father returns, now a broken man. Grandpa, however, begins to cultivate roses in the dusty soil.

The Tagawas, like most of the Japanese Americans, were convinced that they would soon be allowed to return to their homes, but as 1942 became 1943, it became clear that was not going to happen. Masako is resentful that they are treated like enemy instead of citizens, but when the US Army begins to accept some of the detained men, her brother wants to join up, against his father's wishes, to prove he is an American.

By 1945, Nick is still fighting in Europe, Grandpa has actually successfully managed to coax roses to grow and many families have started to leave the camp and return home. The Tagawa family has gone through many changes in the years of detainment. Can they really return to the life they once knew in Seattle after such an ordeal?

Dust of Eden is written in free verse, with the exception of the letters exchanged between Nick and his sister. Everything the family experiences is told in the first person in the voice of Masako. This was an interesting, compelling novel, though I found myself annoyed at Masako much of the time. In most stories about Japanese Internment, the main character feels much of the same things that Masako does, but at some point they take charge of their lives even under these oppressive circumstances. But she never does that, and her passivity irked me. Her grandfather was a master grower of roses and she could have at least learned what he had to offer. He was the only one who made an effort to improve their dreadful life.

I thought Nick would have been a more interesting character to read about. Where did he go all those times he was breaking curfew? With whom did he hang out? What was army life like for him as a Japanese American?

I would still recommend this novel, since it does give us another perspective on the treatment of Japanese Americans in WW2 by our government and citizens, not our shiniest moment. It would pair nicely with Imprisoned: the betrayal of Japanese Americans during World War II by Martin W. Sandler, which was based on interviews of people interned at around Masako's age.

This book is recommended for readers age 8+
This book was an EARC received from NetGalley

Dust of Eden will be available on March 1, 1014

This review was originally posted at The Children's War

[readswithrosa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some will say that this is a powerful, thought-provoking and inspirational story, but it’s difficult to see it from that perspective when such experiences were unsettling, infuriating, demeaning and heart-wrenching, leaving families broken.

This is a poignant story written in verse from the perspective of a Japanese-American girl.

Mina is in Middle School when her family is upended and moved to an internment camp. Men like her father were taken away because they were considered ‘dangerous aliens’, all the while her teacher is assigning everyone different names so they can be more American. After 3 years at the camp, Mina begins to understand that America tells you you’re not American, but also asks you to fight and maybe die to protect it. As she struggles to understand her identity, feelings of hopelessness and confusion, her grandpa gives her some words of advice about what it means to be both American and Japanese: ‘𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚓𝚘𝚋 𝚒𝚜 𝚝𝚘 𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚗 𝚝𝚘 𝚕𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚜𝚎 𝚝𝚠𝚘 𝚋𝚛𝚘𝚔𝚎𝚗 𝚙𝚒𝚎𝚌𝚎𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚖𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚖 𝚘𝚗𝚎’.

#RecommendedRead 🌺✌🏽

[ElphaReads · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first time I heard about the Japanese Internment was one of two scenarios. The first was seventh grade English class, in which we read the book FAREWELL TO MANZANAR, a book that I consider to be one of the quintessential reads on the subject. The second was visiting my WWII Vet grandfather in Iowa and having to cut the trip short because he and my Dad got in a very heated argument about the Japanese Internment (my Grandpa on the Pro side, my Dad very adamantly on the Con side). I think that I was very lucky in my education that I had heard of this terrible part of American HIstory, as apparently not many people are aware that the U.S. Government imprisoned U.S. Citizens for a couple of years based solely on where they descended from (but let's be real, it's not like the same was done to German Americans or Italian Americans, so it was pretty much flat out racism). I have read a few books on the topic now, and have a couple more in my docket, but DUST OF EDEN is the first one that is written in verse form. Going of the recommendation of a classmate, I picked this up from the library and pretty much went through it in two sittings.

Masako 'Mina' Tagawa is a Japanese American school girl living in Seattle in 1941. She has a mother and father, and older brother named Nick, and a Grandfather who loves to garden and grow roses, and has a best friend named Jamie who cares for her very much. During Choir practice one December day, news comes in that the Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor, and that America is going to war. Mina and her family are soon taken away from their home in Seattle and taken to a camp in Idaho, with tall walls, barbed wire, and terrible living conditions. Mina writes letters to her friend Jamie, while Grandfather starts his own garden, and Mother works in the kitchens waiting for Father to join them after his separate internment is over. Nick grows more and more bitter towards the older members of the family, and wants to prove his bravery and loyalty to America by joining up, and as the family spends two years in this camp they wonder if they will ever be the same, and why the government has done this to them when they are all Americans.

The verse style reminded me a lot of INSIDE OUT AND BACK AGAIN, though I felt like it wasn't used as strongly. I'm not very big on poetry as many of you already know, but the good thing about DUST OF EDEN was that it never really felt like I was reading poetry, even though it was very clear that I was. If that makes any sense. It probably doesn't, but moving on. I thought that this book did a wonderful job of portraying all sides of how Japanese Americans reacted and responded to their imprisonment, be it the Issei's tendency to try and suffer with dignity while the Nisei outright questioned and raged against the Government. Showing the sides of Father being against the idea of Nick joining up, and Nick being adamant and resentful towards his elders, was certainly seen a fair amount of the time, from what I can tell. Mina has a powerful voice in the novel, though I feel like her story and her own experiences and feelings were a bit overshadowed by what was happening with Nick. Maybe that was just because Nick's story was so resonant and I read through it. I definitely think that this would be a great tool to use in classrooms while studying World War II, especially since this aspect of the War is so often overlooked when we are feeling incredibly jingoistic during those units. Our hands were not unclean during that war, and it's best we remember that.

Thanks for the recommendation, Amy Rae! Now I need to decide if I go right into another book about this topic, or go for lighter fare first....

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novel in verse told from the perspective of a young Japanese American girl sent to live in an internment camp with her family. Very beautifully written. Brief but powerful.

Here are some excerpts that I found touching and thought provoking and beautifully written:
Page 34: "We were all sad, but out on smiling faces, like we did not care, like our hearts were not breaking, though if you listened hard, if you ignored the engines, you could hear thousands of hearts breaking, shattering, into pieces."

P.37: "They have taken away our homes, our words, my father."

P. 43:
"Today it's raining
outside as well
as inside,
And no matter
how many times we
place the cups
and bowls
and plates under
the drips,
they become full
as soon as
we empty then
out. The floor
is muddy, so muddy
that we wear our shoes inside."

P. 52: "No one talks; no one laughs. We stand in line." (This refrain is echoed throughout this particular poem...and the poem two pages before is about the standing in line...for showers, food, to send letters, much of their time is spent in line.)

P. 66:
Masako, earth is a lot like people,
Grandpa says. Earth must be cared for,
tended. With patience, he says, you can
change a poor soil into a fertile
and rich soil...
...It just takes time,
it just takes patience, he says,
just like it does with people. Don't give up
until you have done everything to change
yourself. Then, he says as he sits
on the doorstep, only then can you start
blaming others."

P. 99
"...Because home isn't just
our family, but it's something bigger,
it's everything and everyone,
and even when we fight,
even when we hurt each other,
we are family, no matter what.
Maybe that's what America is for me.
I almost feel like this is home."

It's hard for me to comprehend how we, as a nation, could have allowed fear to lead us to intern more than 110,000 Japanese Americans. How we could treat them so poorly. That FDR would sign Executive Order 9066 that forced them from their homes. Yet, reading of their courage inspires me. I hope we learn from these events of the past and do not allow history to repeat itself.

[Daisey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a poignant story of a young Japanese American girl's experience following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It details her thoughts and emotions as people start to treat her differently, her father is arrested, and her family is forced to leave their home in Seattle for an internment camp. Through Mina's eyes we see the devastating effects of these events on her family and her personal struggle to define her own identity. At the same time we see how the family perseveres with quiet strength to make the best of a situation that was completely out of their control.

Written mostly in verse, but interspersed with letters between characters, this was a quick read for me. However, I can see the format and slow start making it difficult for some younger readers to be drawn into the story.

* I received an electronic copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent addition to YA lit on the Japanese concentration camps in America. The story is told through the eyes of a young girl and what she sees happening around her and to her family members. It is poignant and real. Highly recommended to teachers as supplemental reading when they study this horrid episode of American history. Written in verse, it is easy to read, but yet paints a very vivid picture even with the paucity of words.

[Debbi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short little book about a Japanese family forced into an interment camp during WWII. How would it feel to be a 13-year-old girl as hard as that is already, to be called "Jap" by the other kids? Their first camp was an animal's stall and a hole in the ground for a toliet. To this day it is the most unconstitutional measure the United States government has ever done.

[Isabel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful moment of reading.
In verses, in a fluid way, we are taken through the life of Masako and her family, following the attack on Pearl Harbor. What does it mean to be American when you are young Japanese, parked inside a camp, thousands miles away from your home?

[Earl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Told in verse, this chronicles the story of one family during a dark period of human history where Japanese Americans were interned. Whole lives were uprooted and destroyed. It still breaks my heart to read accounts- even fictionalized.

[Mai Nguyễn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a fan of Mariko Nagai's poetry and now I am a big fan of her fiction. What an insightful and moving read! DUST OF EDEN enables me understand much more about Japanese history. I highly recommend the book.

[Brooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was great. I would really recommend it. It is a great poetry book.

[Lillian]

Mina Tagawa is in her church choir practicing their Christmas carols when all of the sudden someone starts screaming "THE JAPS BOMBED PEARL HARBOR!!!!" Mina knows something is wrong. Mina and her family have to be moved to a camp (or a horse stable with no horse in it) because they are Japanese. Mina who is a normal girls in Seattle, Washington, in middle school with short black hair is so sad, she has to move away from her best friend Jamie. Nick her brother who is always happy and laughing and telling jokes turns into a very angry high schooler because he is very mad that they are making them move because they say they are Japanese because they are really Japanese and American. Mina's father gets taken away from them because they think he did something wrong. Mina's father has always been strong and nice and always loved his family. Mina's mom has always been so sweet and caring and always has tea and milk ready for Mina when she comes home. Mina's Grandfather is very old and frail and his favorite thing to do is garden. He has a beautiful rose garden and takes care of them very well. Last but not least Basho, Basho is Mina's cat and gets fed only miso soup and rice for dinner. Basho will not eat anything else. So when they have to move everyone changes, Mina's grandfather becomes very skinny and doesn't have his roses to care for so he becomes very sad. Nick goes into the army and writes to them. Mina's father comes home two years later and is the skinniest man Mina has ever seen. He is always smoking and is sleeping alot. Mina's mom has to work in the mess hall so she is always tired and her hands are full of blisters. Mina gets to write letters to Jamie and her father and Nick so she likes that. Mina's grandfather has to go to the hospital because he has been coughing a lot and when Mina goes to see him he is outside in the garden lying there holding a rose in his hand. He was dead! Mina was so sad. When she came home from school one day she started to tell grandpa how her day was and then she realised he wasn't there. Mina and her family have to stay there for three years and then finally the war ends so Nick comes home! Mina is so happy they go back to there house and they finally get to go home! Mina is so happy to see Jamie and Basho!




I loved this book! I read this book in one and a half days! I couldn't put it down . This book made me realise how lucky we are to be here. I loved how Mina was telling the story and how it was in poetry form. I would Give this book 4 stars just because it is a little sadder than I thought it would be.

[Maile Elton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful and heartbreaking story told by a young girl named Mina Tagawa. One day while singing in the choir at school, an announcement is made that will change her life forever. The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. And just like that, this American girl in middle school is rejected by her peers and the neighborhood she grew up in. When her home in Seattle is deemed unsafe for Japanese Americans to live in anymore, Mina and her family are sent to an internment camp. They pack their bags and throw white sheets over their furniture, awaiting a time when they can return home. Mina struggles to understand her identity, stuck between two worlds. This story illustrates what it was like to be a young, American Japanese girl living in the United States during the 1940s. It is a story that should be heard.

I absolutely loved this novel. It is beautifully written in verse. Because it is written in verse, it is obvious that there was a lot of thought put into the words that are written on each page. Mariko Nagai does a wonderful job illustrating what life was like for a young, American Japanese girl during this time. I became attached to the characters in the novel quickly, feeling their emotions and contemplating what it would be like to leave the only home I'd ever known.

Content Warnings:
-There was nothing that concerned me.

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a challenging if short read, because so much of the underlying inhumanity in this story is currently the prevailing narrative of our current situation.

When I was in law school we studied the case of Korematsu v US, issued in 1944, which upheld the constitutionality of the Japanese Internment. That case was ruled in 2018 by the Supreme Court to have been wrongly decided and of no precedential value. Already, in 1988, reparations had been paid to the victims and there was a sense that this was a thing of the past. So the disgust and shame of what our country had done which was experienced more poignantly in law school with a thorough grounding in constitutional principles at least had a tinge of hope that we knew better.

At present, our current government and way too many of my fellow citizens are hell bent on proving that hatred of the other is the core value of America, rather than 'liberty and justice for all.' The Constitution as I learned it is now an old rag full of holes through which all but the most wealthy fall into hopelessness. And I will not be surprised in the near future when the Supreme Court votes to Korematsu approvingly and says if it was not wrong to do these things to our own citizens, how can it be wrong to do it to outsiders?

[Carol Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short, historical fiction is written in verse. It tells the story of Mina, whose family was forced to leave their home in Seattle and relocate to a concentration camp in the arid lands of Montana, because they were of Japanese descent. This really happened during WWII, in the years after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Families lost their assets, or at least their bank accounts were frozen. Mina's family was lucky. They had a neighbor who kept an eye on their home, so when they returned home it was not vandalized, as many were. From those concentration camps, many young men, like Mina's brother, Nick, determined to prove their patriotism and love of their country, enlisted in the army and served in Europe. (For another historical fiction story about their service, I'd recommend you check into "Four-Four-Two.") Always a heartbreaking topic to read about; always a thought-provoking story that teaches us that we need to guard our democracy; this one tells the tale in intimate verse.

[Molly Falck Dickson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dust of Eden is about a young girl whose family gets taken away into a Japanese internment camp. She describes her observations of the camp and the people involved, (including her mother, father, brother, and grandpa), and her experience in understanding what it means to be an American. Mina grapples with her identity while in these camps, struggling to keep her name, her Japanese heritage, and her status as an American.

Written in verse, her experience sounds like a beautiful tragedy, almost as though the author is playing on the irony of glamorizing the war experience. The verse makes it easy to read, but the subject matter is heavy. Such small and simple statements that Mariko Nagai writes are profound in characterizing Mina's traumatic experience. This novel helped me to understand that there are many points of view, (even within families), when it comes to experiencing war, and what is taught in schools can gloss over the experiences of minorities in America.

Content Warnings:
> death
> graphic imagery
> violence
> emotional trauma

[Lillie · Rating 4 out of 5]

"This earth here... has a chance to become magnificent, and with time can become rich and heavy. It just takes time, it just takes patience, just like with people."

I want to begin this review by saying that I've always enjoyed poetry, but rarely have I enjoyed free verse. So it was with some trepidation that I picked up this book when it was handed to me by my co-teacher. We're thinking about a short poetry/historical unit, and this was one of the options. So I gave it a try.

I'm so happy I did.

A young Japanese girl is put into an internment camp with her mother, father, grandfather, and brother. The four of them have to endure all of the challenges that come with this horrifying time. There are questions about loyalty, faith, and understanding one's place in a society. Where do you belong when your own country doesn't want you?

Not only is it incredibly poignant as a historical novel, but also for the time we find ourselves in right now.

Take time with this book. Let yourself read every word. It's absolutely worth it.