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lilybear3's review
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
This book is informative on the Japanese Internment camps. I didn't know that there were also camps in Canada. I also appreciated learning about the Asahi baseball team.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
daycia's review
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Xenophobia, Racism, and Confinement
tamikan's review
4.0
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital ARC.
Lovely art. Simple monochromatic colors.
Japanese Internment Camps are an important story to tell, but for some reason I didn't feel any intensity or a lot of emotion for this story. Maybe the baseball theme made everything a bit more hopeful (the message I got in the edn was, everything will be okay because we still have baseball) or maybe after reading Maus everything else about World War II seems tame.
Either way, this is a nice story for younger readers to learn about what happened to Japanese Americans and Japanese Canadians during WWII. But I would be sure to also read They Called Us Enemy.
Lovely art. Simple monochromatic colors.
Japanese Internment Camps are an important story to tell, but for some reason I didn't feel any intensity or a lot of emotion for this story. Maybe the baseball theme made everything a bit more hopeful (the message I got in the edn was, everything will be okay because we still have baseball) or maybe after reading Maus everything else about World War II seems tame.
Either way, this is a nice story for younger readers to learn about what happened to Japanese Americans and Japanese Canadians during WWII. But I would be sure to also read They Called Us Enemy.
ankita_g's review
4.0
A NetGalley ARC.
This was quite an emotional read. The story wonderfully highlights the pain of displacement within a country one calls their own, and the loss of a "home", your comfort zone. I didn't have any prior knowledge of the repercussions of the Pearl Harbour attack on the Japanese already living in the US and Canada, so this story provided a much-needed perspective on the Second World War that I haven't read about in literature.
I only wish the book was slightly longer and went deeper into the displacement issue.
This was quite an emotional read. The story wonderfully highlights the pain of displacement within a country one calls their own, and the loss of a "home", your comfort zone. I didn't have any prior knowledge of the repercussions of the Pearl Harbour attack on the Japanese already living in the US and Canada, so this story provided a much-needed perspective on the Second World War that I haven't read about in literature.
I only wish the book was slightly longer and went deeper into the displacement issue.
backonthealex's review
4.0
It's summer 1941 and the Asahi Baseball team is the pride of Powell Street in Vancouver, BC, "the champions of the Japanese community." For young Sandy Saito and his dad, Dr. Saito, that means going to games together and cheering their heroes on and later, playing catch in the backyard together.
But all that changes on December 7, 1941 when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. Suddenly, Sandy's dad was short tempered and didn't want to play catch anymore. The kids in school, who had been Sandy's friends, turn on him, calling him names and refusing to let any Japanese kids play baseball with them, even throwing rocks at them.
Soon, Japanese persons are forced out of some areas of British Columbia and moved to "camps" in old, abandoned mining settlements, including the Saitos, but not before Dr. Saito goes out on a house call and doesn't come home. All his family knows is that the government sent him to "where he was needed most,"
leaving Mrs. Saito, Sandy and his younger brother Ty to cope with being relocated to an internment camp in the middle of the Canadian wilderness, with no electricity or running water.
Adjusting to their new life isn't easy, but eventually Sandy and Ty make friends and have some fun. But it is all work for their mother and the other women, who need to find ways to keep their children warm in the coming winter, plus they now have to share their small shelter with another family, including a baby. However, it turns out that some of the players for the Asahi Baseball team are also at the camp. Is it possible that baseball can provide some sense of normalcy and happiness for Sandy and the other people in the camp?
J. Torres provides readers with a very clear picture of what life was like for Canadians of Japanese descent after the United States entered the war, in this graphic novel told in the first person from Sandy Saito's perspective. Interestingly, the Canada had entered the war immediately after Britain declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939 and yet had left Japanese persons living on its west coast along until Pearl Harbor.
Torres has really captured the fear and confusion that Sandy felt about why things changed so abruptly because of events he doesn't completely understand, and his hurt feelings as his beloved father becomes more stressed and short-tempered.
I find it interesting that baseball played such an important role in the lives of both Japanese Americans and Japanese Canadians during the war. Perhaps because it is a game of skill and both players and spectators can really get lost in, enabling them to escape their new reality of losing everything they had worked for and being put into slapped together internment camps in the middle of nowhere.
Stealing Home is a wonderful vehicle for introducing younger middle grade readers to this part of the history of WWII. I read a black and white ARC and so I can't comment on the final art, but the illustrations are detailed and not frighteningly graphic.
You can learn more about the Asahi Baseball Team HERE
This book was an eARC gratefully received from Edelweiss+
But all that changes on December 7, 1941 when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. Suddenly, Sandy's dad was short tempered and didn't want to play catch anymore. The kids in school, who had been Sandy's friends, turn on him, calling him names and refusing to let any Japanese kids play baseball with them, even throwing rocks at them.
Soon, Japanese persons are forced out of some areas of British Columbia and moved to "camps" in old, abandoned mining settlements, including the Saitos, but not before Dr. Saito goes out on a house call and doesn't come home. All his family knows is that the government sent him to "where he was needed most,"
leaving Mrs. Saito, Sandy and his younger brother Ty to cope with being relocated to an internment camp in the middle of the Canadian wilderness, with no electricity or running water.
Adjusting to their new life isn't easy, but eventually Sandy and Ty make friends and have some fun. But it is all work for their mother and the other women, who need to find ways to keep their children warm in the coming winter, plus they now have to share their small shelter with another family, including a baby. However, it turns out that some of the players for the Asahi Baseball team are also at the camp. Is it possible that baseball can provide some sense of normalcy and happiness for Sandy and the other people in the camp?
J. Torres provides readers with a very clear picture of what life was like for Canadians of Japanese descent after the United States entered the war, in this graphic novel told in the first person from Sandy Saito's perspective. Interestingly, the Canada had entered the war immediately after Britain declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939 and yet had left Japanese persons living on its west coast along until Pearl Harbor.
Torres has really captured the fear and confusion that Sandy felt about why things changed so abruptly because of events he doesn't completely understand, and his hurt feelings as his beloved father becomes more stressed and short-tempered.
I find it interesting that baseball played such an important role in the lives of both Japanese Americans and Japanese Canadians during the war. Perhaps because it is a game of skill and both players and spectators can really get lost in, enabling them to escape their new reality of losing everything they had worked for and being put into slapped together internment camps in the middle of nowhere.
Stealing Home is a wonderful vehicle for introducing younger middle grade readers to this part of the history of WWII. I read a black and white ARC and so I can't comment on the final art, but the illustrations are detailed and not frighteningly graphic.
You can learn more about the Asahi Baseball Team HERE
This book was an eARC gratefully received from Edelweiss+
bookmeanderings's review
4.0
Thank you to the publisher for an advanced copy of this graphic novel in exchange for an honest review.
This was a fictional story about an all too real part of American history. The art was quite good and the story itself pulled at the heart strings at times, while only once in a while falling a bit flat. Overall, this was a meaningful, real, but ultimately uplifting story about a shameful part of US history.
This was a fictional story about an all too real part of American history. The art was quite good and the story itself pulled at the heart strings at times, while only once in a while falling a bit flat. Overall, this was a meaningful, real, but ultimately uplifting story about a shameful part of US history.
mydiverse_bookshelf's review
3.0
What if one day suddenly your no longer considered someone as a neighbour, a citizen, a well wisher or helpful friend instead whenever you passby people look at you with disgust they taunt you for not who you are but which race you belong for an incident brings out the worst turning their own countrymen against... them..
It's 1941, Japan has attacked pearl Harbor and that's set needed spark to deep rooted racism against Japanese Americans in their own country for they are belittled :they are rounded , curfews are started and special restrictions are put in place... This is only start for what is about to come...! This graphic novel was eye opener for me as it was something i wasn't aware of.. The author has very well brought out the needed connect and context to help us get into it, only wish would be if author had woven more it into a fictional account making it lengthier for readers to connect with it more it felt short as if something was amiss ; and wish the artwork could be more better than it is.. not at all impressed by art when compared to the weight of story..! Thankful to Netgalley, J torres author and publishers for providing review copy!
It's 1941, Japan has attacked pearl Harbor and that's set needed spark to deep rooted racism against Japanese Americans in their own country for they are belittled :they are rounded , curfews are started and special restrictions are put in place... This is only start for what is about to come...! This graphic novel was eye opener for me as it was something i wasn't aware of.. The author has very well brought out the needed connect and context to help us get into it, only wish would be if author had woven more it into a fictional account making it lengthier for readers to connect with it more it felt short as if something was amiss ; and wish the artwork could be more better than it is.. not at all impressed by art when compared to the weight of story..! Thankful to Netgalley, J torres author and publishers for providing review copy!
morganthelibrarian's review
5.0
WOW. This was such a unique perspective on WWII, the Japanese internment camps, and how baseball was used to boost morale. I loved learning about the Asahi baseball teams (being a giant baseball family, this was right up my alley), while also peering into the Japanese-Canadians experiences after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
These experiences always hurt my heart to hear about, but so so important to read about as well. The graphic novel formatting was done very beautifully and the artwork was superb.
*Thanks to the folks at Netgalley for an eARC*
These experiences always hurt my heart to hear about, but so so important to read about as well. The graphic novel formatting was done very beautifully and the artwork was superb.
*Thanks to the folks at Netgalley for an eARC*