Publishers Weekly
10/06/2014
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.)
School Library Journal
09/01/2014
Gr 5–8—Tomi is a 12-year-old American citizen of Japanese descent living in California during World War II. Her life is turned upside down after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. "No Japs Allowed" signs hang in shop windows and she is excluded from events as a result of her heritage. Ultimately, Tomi and her family are sent to an internment camp called Tallgrass (based on Amache, an internment camp in Colorado). Tomi does not understand why she should be relocated; she was born in America; she is an American. She has never been to Japan and does not even speak Japanese. Rather than feel defeated, she finds strength in dire circumstances. Tomi makes it her mission to improve the lives of those around her and give them happiness. Dallas makes an important time in American history accessible to middle grade readers with this novel that illuminates a time of discrimination while promoting a message of perseverance and tolerance.—Tiffany Davis, Mount Saint Mary College, Newburgh, NY
Kirkus Reviews
2014-06-18
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 infodumps—most of which feels as if written for a very young audience—serve to diminish the attractiveness of the presentation.An only average depiction of a compelling and important topic. (Historical fiction. 9-12)
