Illustrated by Shula KlingerA World War II Scrapbook
Marshall Cavendish Children, 2010
$17.99 hc
92 pages
Rating: 5
This book is written as a journal/scrapbook by 14 year old Louise Margaret Krueger in 1942. Her best friend is Dottie Masuoka, and they live and go to school near Seattle. Their lives are forever changed when Dottie and her entire family are relocated to interment camps after the bombing by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor.
The diary includes letters from Dottie to Louise as well as newspaper articles about the bombing and coverage of the relocation. Therefore, it covers the feelings and sentiments of non-Japanese Americans who have Japanese American friends as well as insight from the interred Japanese Americans. We see and feel what it's like to be on the outside of the fence, as what it feels like to be on the inside. The housing is described really well, and the decline of Dottie's grandfather and his growing resentment of the U. S. government is powerful.
The book is well-written, interesting, fun to read, and filled with historic information. After visiting Manzanar last summer it was particularly poignant to read. There is a five-page afterward that includes oodles of information related to the historical background of the story.
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