Conner Johnson’s Reviews > Tallgrass > Status Update

The book has so many amazing twists near the end, and I loved being able to see it all finally come together. There were so many different things happening throughout the story at once, and it was very interesting. I also loved getting to know all of the characters so well, and overall it was a very enjoyable book to read.

It has been discovered that Marthalice's (one of Rennie's closest friends) dad has become addicted to morphine, and is abusive, so now Marthalice is living with Rennie's family. One of the Beet workers from the camp, Harry, joined the military but passed away in an accident before he had a chance. Now people are realizing that Daisy (one of the family's workers) has become pregnant and Harry was the father.

So much has happened and I've really gotten into this book. Rennie's brother has gone missing in action and she is still worried about her mom's health. They still haven't figured out who killed Susan, however, the Sheriff has said that he believes he knows who did it, but won't say who.

So much has happened since the last time I updated this. One of Rennie's friends was found dead, and they blame one of the Japanese camp members for it. Her mom is extremely sick, and her family has hired boys and a girl from the camp to work on the farm and around the house. Rennie has finally gotten to visit her sister in Denver, and has seen how differently Japanese people are treated there compared to Ellis.

I haven't read much further into the book from last week, but an interesting detail that recently happened is that Rennie writes to her sister about how her brother is back and how excited she is to see her again, but her sister only says that she's happy for her, and says nothing about coming back to Ellis (the town). Rennie's dad is actually considering hiring people from the internment camp.

Rennie is happy to be able to spend time with her brother now that he is back temporarily from the war, however things are becoming tenser with the internment camp in their town. A group of Japanese kids that Rennie and her brother meet in the store are attacked on their way back to the camp, and Rennie knows who did it, but can't prove it. The family has arguments about the humanity of the internment camp.

Rennie's brother has come home to visit from the war finally, and she is excited to show her whole family that he has returned. Rennie's father is the only man in the town that is open to the idea of hiring some of the Japanese in the internment camps to help with harvesting on his farm. Lots of the other men in the town don't like him for this, because they see the Japanese as criminals who aren't safe to be around.

I love this book so far. From what I've read so far, I can kind of tell where the story might go, and I'm really excited to see that. I believe that the main character, who is a kid at the time of the events in the story, is going to meet some of the people in the camp that the Japanese have been sent to and realize that they aren't as bad as she has been told.

I haven't been able to read very much of the book this week, but I'm really excited to read more of this book.