Status
Available
Collection
Publication
Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books (2019), Edition: Uncorrected Proof, 416 pages
Description
Twelve-year-old Hanako and her family, reeling from their confinement in an internment camp, renounce their American citizenship to move to Hiroshima, a city devastated by the atomic bomb dropped by Americans.
Local notes
School Library Journal Starred, 04/30/2019
Gr 5 Up—World War II has ended and 12-year-old Hanako, her five-year old brother Akira, and their American-born parents have spent the past four years imprisoned in a series of internment camps. Hana's parents accept an offer from the U.S. government to renounce their American citizenship and expatriate to Japan. Their plan is to live with Hanako's father's parents, poor tenant farmers outside the city of Hiroshima. Hanako is hopeful for her family's new chance in Japan and immediately loves her Jiichan and Baachan but is faced with the realities of life in an unfamiliar, war-blighted country. Resources are scarce; as her family toils endlessly to keep food in the house, Hanako is torn between providing for her family and sharing what little she has with the people she encounters around Hiroshima. In her trademark style, Kadohata unfurls the complex web of the girl's inner thoughts in a concise yet cutting third-person narrative. Hanako attempts to discern what it means to be good and how to belong in a place where one is not truly welcome. An afterword gives further details on the history of internment and expatriate Americans in Japan. VERDICT A first purchase for collections needing complex and emotionally impactful historical fiction.—Darla Salva Cruz, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY Copyright 2019 Reed Business Information.
Gr 5 Up—World War II has ended and 12-year-old Hanako, her five-year old brother Akira, and their American-born parents have spent the past four years imprisoned in a series of internment camps. Hana's parents accept an offer from the U.S. government to renounce their American citizenship and expatriate to Japan. Their plan is to live with Hanako's father's parents, poor tenant farmers outside the city of Hiroshima. Hanako is hopeful for her family's new chance in Japan and immediately loves her Jiichan and Baachan but is faced with the realities of life in an unfamiliar, war-blighted country. Resources are scarce; as her family toils endlessly to keep food in the house, Hanako is torn between providing for her family and sharing what little she has with the people she encounters around Hiroshima. In her trademark style, Kadohata unfurls the complex web of the girl's inner thoughts in a concise yet cutting third-person narrative. Hanako attempts to discern what it means to be good and how to belong in a place where one is not truly welcome. An afterword gives further details on the history of internment and expatriate Americans in Japan. VERDICT A first purchase for collections needing complex and emotionally impactful historical fiction.—Darla Salva Cruz, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY Copyright 2019 Reed Business Information.
Awards
National Book Award (Longlist — Young People's Literature — 2019)
A Horn Book Fanfare Best Book (Fiction — 2019)
Judy Lopez Memorial Award for Children's Literature (Honor Book — 2020)
Volunteer State Book Award (Nominee — Middle School — 2021)
Mind the Gap Awards (2020)
Freeman Award (Winner — 2019)
CCBC Choices (2020)
Kansas NEA Reading Circle Recommended Book (Junior — 2020)
Notable Children's Book (Older Readers — 2020)
El día de los niños / El día de los libros (6-8 — 2020)
Evanston Public Library 101 Great Books for Kids (Fiction — 2019)
Chicago Public Library Best of the Best: Kids (Fiction for Older Readers — 2019)