Beyond Paradise

by Jane Hertenstein

Within months of arriving in the Philippines from Upper Sandusky, Ohio, to live with her missionary parents on the island of Panay, fourteen-year-old Louise finds herself a prisoner of war in an internment camp when the Japanese invade in 1941.

168 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1996

About the author

Jane Hertenstein is a Pushcart nominee whose work has been recognized by the New York Times. She is the author of over 100 published stories both macro and micro: fiction, creative non-fiction, and blurred genre. In addition she has published two MG novels and a non-fiction project, Orphan Girl: The Memoir of a Chicago Bag Lady, which garnered national reviews. Jane is the recipient of a grant from the Illinois Arts Council. She teaches a workshop on Flash Memoir. Her life motto is Do Everything with your One Wild and Precious Life.

Reviews

[Nanako Yan · Rating 2 out of 5]

For school

[Salsabrarian]

Louise Keller’s father moves the family from Sandusky, Ohio, to the Philippines, to head a Baptist missionary school. But then the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor and war comes to the Philippines. Louise’s father is trapped in Manila and Louise and her mother and the other residents of the missionary must flee to the jungles to avoid the Japanese. But in time, they are discovered and imprisoned in internment camps. There, Louise copes as best she can without her father and tries to help her mother who is traumatized by events. Starvation, lack of privacy, sickness, and danger are always present, but Louise also makes good friends and matures in a way she couldn’t have imagined.