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Summary
Summary
It's 1942: Tomi Itano, 12, is a second-generation Japanese American who lives in California with her family on their strawberry farm. Although her parents came from Japan and her grandparents still live there, Tomi considers herself an American. She doesn't speak Japanese and has never been to Japan. But after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, things change. No Japs Allowed signs hang in store windows and Tomi's family is ostracized. Things get much worse. Suspected as a spy, Tomi's father is taken away. The rest of the Itano family is sent to an internment camp in Colorado. Many other Japanese American families face a similar fate. Tomi becomes bitter, wondering how her country could treat her and her family like the enemy. What does she need to do to prove she is an honorable American? Sandra Dallas shines a light on a dark period of American history in this story of a young Japanese American girl caught up in the prejudices and World War II.
Author Notes
Sandra Dallas graduated from the University of Denver with a degree in journalism and began her writing career as a reporter with Business Week.
While a reporter, she began writing nonfiction which include Sacred Paint, which won the National Cowboy Hall of Fame Western Heritage Wrangler Award, and The Quilt That Walked to Golden, recipient of the Independent Publishers Association Benjamin Franklin Award.
Turning to fiction in 1990, Sandra has published a number of novels including Buster Midnight's Cafe, Alice's Tulips, and Prayers For Sale. She is the recipient of the Women Writing the West Willa Award for New Mercies, and two-time winner of the Western Writers of America Spur Award, for The Chili Queen and Tallgrass. In addition, she was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award, the Mountain and Plains Booksellers Association Award, and a four-time finalist for the Women Writing the West Willa Award.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Twelve-year-old Tomi Itano, the daughter of Japanese immigrants, is embarrassed and saddened when signs reading "No Japs" suddenly begin to appear around their California town, following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Opening in 1942, Dallas's novel follows Tomi's family's hardships as anti-Japanese prejudice erupts around them, and the FBI arrests her father under false charges of espionage. Tomi, her mother, and her two younger brothers are then removed from their successful strawberry farm, first banished to a horse stable and then to an internment camp in Tallgrass, Colo. (the setting of Dallas's adult novel Tallgrass). Tomi tries to remain optimistic despite her family's anger and uncertainty, and her mother takes on an unexpected leadership role as teacher in their newly formed community at the camp; when Tomi's father returns, bitter after two years of mistreatment, their world is upended once again. Dallas (The Quilt Story) takes an honest look at a painful chapter in U.S. history, forthrightly depicting the injustices faced by thousands of people of Japanese descent during WWII. Ages 9-up. Agent: Danielle Egan-Miller, Browne & Miller Literary Associates. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Dallas revisits the setting of her best-selling adult novel Tallgrass (2007) in this fictionalized view of U.S. internment camps during WWII. Twelve-year-old Tomi is as American as the strawberries that grow behind her California home, even though both of her parents were born in Japan. When the U.S. declares war against Japan in 1941, she is suddenly perceived as a traitor in her own country. First Pop is taken away. Then Tomi, her mother, and her brother are forced to leave home, assigned to live in a horse stall at a racetrack before moving to an internment camp, Tallgrass, near Ellis, Colorado. At first the camp residents keep their distance from one another. But, like Opal in Kate DiCamillo's Because of Winn-Dixie (2000), Tomi begins making peace with her situation through friendships with others. She and her new friend Ruth scheme up ways to create a sense of community in Tallgrass. The result is a realistic portrayal of the internment camps, brightened by the determination of one girl to remain true to her optimistic spirit.--Colson, Diane Copyright 2014 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-6-After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, 12-year-old Tomi Itano's life changes dramatically. She and her family face prejudice and discrimination in town. Her father is arrested and falsely imprisoned for suspected espionage. Then Tomi, her two brothers, and their mother are relocated to an internment camp in Colorado. Initially, Tomi remains positive and does what she can to help her family and others adjust. But when her father is released from prison two years later, he is justifiably bitter and his experience affects Tomi profoundly; she questions how the country she loves could treat them so unjustly. Jennifer Ikeda solidly narrates the story, which takes place in the fictional camp of Tallgrass, which the author based on the real-life Amache internment camp. Ikeda's steady, soothing voice draws the listener into the story, and she differentiates nicely between characters. The voices of the children match their age, and Ikeda gives the parents and other adults from Japan lightly accented voices. -VERDICT While the ending is predictable and the work is not without flaws-there is a lot of unnecessary repetition of information-the subject is important and is made accessible to middle grade listeners because of Tomi's believable character arc.-Amanda Raklovits, Champaign Public Library, IL © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
After her father, a Japanese immigrant, is arrested on trumped-up charges of espionage at the outset of World War II, 12-year-old Tomi and the rest of her family, like many Japanese-Americans, are incarcerated in an internment camp for the remainder of the war.The family is given just two weeks to prepare for their imprisonment. They sell most of their possessions, and after several months in temporary quarters in a stall at a California racetrack, they are transferred to an unfinished camp, Tallgrass, in Colorado. Dallas, who portrayed the same fictional internment camp in her related adult novel, Tallgrass (2007), now explores camp life from an internee's point of view. An optimistic girl, Tomi navigates the myriad difficulties of camp life and unfair imprisonment with a generally positive attitude until her embittered father is allowed to rejoin the family early in 1944. His seething anger unseats her efforts to make the best of things and cope with the prejudice of local residents. Eventually, a kind teacher inspires Tomi to enter a statewide essay contest that she wins, predictably relieving her father's bitterness. Nearly unvarying subject/predicate sentence structure, uninspired dialogue and periodic infodumpsmost of which feels as if written for a very young audienceserve to diminish the attractiveness of the presentation.An only average depiction of a compelling and important topic. (Historical fiction. 9-12) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
