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A review by emdoux
Up From the Sea by Leza Lowitz
3.0
5th grade booktalk
Kai has participated in earthquake drills since nursery school. You feel a quake – go under your desk, bring your knees to your chest, and cover your head. So when in math class,, at 2:46 pm just before the end of the school day, the earth starts to shake, Kai and his fellow students laugh, thinking they might get out of school early – even if it’s already close to the end of the day. But the shaking continues, getting stronger. The clock everyone had been staring at flies off the wall, and the windows shatter. The students are thrown from the floor, up and down, as if the earth is bouncing them like basketballs. The teacher yells to evacuate – and everyone begins to run. Outside, the ground is cracking, and as Kai looks back, he sees his school crumbling to the ground. Loudspeakers announce – tsunami! Tsunami! And though he shouldn’t be surprised – he’s learned since nursery school that a tsunami always follows a quake, Kai never thought he’d be this close to one. Too close to one. Right here. Right now.
After the devastating earthquake and tsunami, all the problems Kai had before seem so insignificant. His father in New York City, silent for years; his mom working as hard as she could to provide for them both in their small Japanese village – and him; a Hafu – half-Japanese, half-foreign. Half as good. Before the tsunami killed him, Kai’s Ojiichan always reminded him that he was not Hafu, but Double – the best of both worlds, being from twice as many cultures as most. Before the tsunami changed the world, Kai had dreams of being a famous soccer player. But after… soccer just doesn’t matter. Then Kai is offered a chance to go to New York City and meet children his age who lived through the 9/11 disaster. As he steps onto the Ground Zero memorial, ten years after the World Trade Center attacks, Kai begins to sense how he might bring something good out of the terrible disaster back home.
Up from the Sea is based on real events that happened in northern Japan in March of 2011. Kai’s story, written in verse, explores the suffering and attempts to rebuild normal life that so many experienced after that time.
Kai has participated in earthquake drills since nursery school. You feel a quake – go under your desk, bring your knees to your chest, and cover your head. So when in math class,, at 2:46 pm just before the end of the school day, the earth starts to shake, Kai and his fellow students laugh, thinking they might get out of school early – even if it’s already close to the end of the day. But the shaking continues, getting stronger. The clock everyone had been staring at flies off the wall, and the windows shatter. The students are thrown from the floor, up and down, as if the earth is bouncing them like basketballs. The teacher yells to evacuate – and everyone begins to run. Outside, the ground is cracking, and as Kai looks back, he sees his school crumbling to the ground. Loudspeakers announce – tsunami! Tsunami! And though he shouldn’t be surprised – he’s learned since nursery school that a tsunami always follows a quake, Kai never thought he’d be this close to one. Too close to one. Right here. Right now.
After the devastating earthquake and tsunami, all the problems Kai had before seem so insignificant. His father in New York City, silent for years; his mom working as hard as she could to provide for them both in their small Japanese village – and him; a Hafu – half-Japanese, half-foreign. Half as good. Before the tsunami killed him, Kai’s Ojiichan always reminded him that he was not Hafu, but Double – the best of both worlds, being from twice as many cultures as most. Before the tsunami changed the world, Kai had dreams of being a famous soccer player. But after… soccer just doesn’t matter. Then Kai is offered a chance to go to New York City and meet children his age who lived through the 9/11 disaster. As he steps onto the Ground Zero memorial, ten years after the World Trade Center attacks, Kai begins to sense how he might bring something good out of the terrible disaster back home.
Up from the Sea is based on real events that happened in northern Japan in March of 2011. Kai’s story, written in verse, explores the suffering and attempts to rebuild normal life that so many experienced after that time.