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A review by bookswithsmee
Stealing Home by J. Torres
4.0
Stealing Home by J. Torres and David Namisato:4/5*
“Baseball is about finding your way home. It’s a metaphor for life. It was the one thing they took from us that we were able to steal back.”
I thank Kids Can Press and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Stealing Home is a graphic novel that follows Sandy Saito and his family, just a small fraction of the 21 000 Japanese-Canadians who were forced to leave their homes following the Attack at Pearl Harbour. This is a story of a young boy, stripped of his house, belongings and rights, who manages to find home in his family, his new community and baseball.
The World War II Japanese Internment Camps are something that we’re egregiously left out of my public school Canadian education. While I was aware of their existence and understood them as the horrific human rights violations that they were, this is the first narrative I’ve read of someone who lived that experience.
I really appreciate the title of this book and the motif of baseball in this story. Stealing Home - both the act of stealing a base in the sport that brought Sandy so much comfort, but also the action of reclaiming a sense of belonging and companionship in a place meant to strip individuals of that.
Obviously this graphic novel, being marketed to a younger audience, does not contain any graphic details of what Japanese-Canadians endured in these camps. I think this makes it a good piece of introductory material to these internment camps for younger readers, those that will see themselves in Sandy. It is with stories like this that we can teach young people about Canadian history and begin them on a journey to learn that which they won’t be taught in school.
*Rating system for reviews is as follows:
5/5 - I would recommend this book to anyone and I plan to read it again (likely a book I would call my favourite)
4/5 - I would recommend this book to anyone
3/5 - I would recommend this book if it fit the specific genre/trope/style you were looking for
2/5 - I would not recommend this book, but I will not discourage others from trying it
1/5 - I would discourage you from reading this book
“Baseball is about finding your way home. It’s a metaphor for life. It was the one thing they took from us that we were able to steal back.”
I thank Kids Can Press and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Stealing Home is a graphic novel that follows Sandy Saito and his family, just a small fraction of the 21 000 Japanese-Canadians who were forced to leave their homes following the Attack at Pearl Harbour. This is a story of a young boy, stripped of his house, belongings and rights, who manages to find home in his family, his new community and baseball.
The World War II Japanese Internment Camps are something that we’re egregiously left out of my public school Canadian education. While I was aware of their existence and understood them as the horrific human rights violations that they were, this is the first narrative I’ve read of someone who lived that experience.
I really appreciate the title of this book and the motif of baseball in this story. Stealing Home - both the act of stealing a base in the sport that brought Sandy so much comfort, but also the action of reclaiming a sense of belonging and companionship in a place meant to strip individuals of that.
Obviously this graphic novel, being marketed to a younger audience, does not contain any graphic details of what Japanese-Canadians endured in these camps. I think this makes it a good piece of introductory material to these internment camps for younger readers, those that will see themselves in Sandy. It is with stories like this that we can teach young people about Canadian history and begin them on a journey to learn that which they won’t be taught in school.
*Rating system for reviews is as follows:
5/5 - I would recommend this book to anyone and I plan to read it again (likely a book I would call my favourite)
4/5 - I would recommend this book to anyone
3/5 - I would recommend this book if it fit the specific genre/trope/style you were looking for
2/5 - I would not recommend this book, but I will not discourage others from trying it
1/5 - I would discourage you from reading this book