Svetlana's Reads and Views

Name of Book: Journey to Topaz Author: Yoshiko Uchida ISBN: 0-916870-85-5 Publisher: Creative Arts Book Company Part of a Series: Journey Home sequel Type of book: WW2, young adult, Topaz camp, Japanese-Americans, Issei, Nisei, camp conditions, desert, 1941-1942 or 1943? Year it was published: 1971 Summary: Like any eleven-year-old, Yuki Sakane is looking forward to christmas when her peaceful world is suddenly shattered by the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Father is taken by the FBI, and she, her mother and older brother, Ken, are uprooted from their home and shipped with thousands of West Coast Japanese Americans to the horse stalls of Tanforan Racetrack and then to the bleak desert concentration camp called Topaz. There Yuki and her new friends, Emi and her grandparents, face terrifying dust storms, new hardships and finally a terrible tragedy that rocks the entire camp. Disillusioned, Ken must make a heart-wrenching decision, and Yuki faces another painful separati...

Name of Book: The First Four Years Author: Laura Ingalls Wilder ISBN: 0-06-440031-X Publisher: Harper Trophy Part of a Series: Little House Series Type of book: 1885-1889, farming life, sickness, storms, tragedies, prairie, pioneer Year it was published: 1971 Summary: Laura and Almanzo Wilder begin married life on their small prairie homestead with high hopes. The beautiful prairie world seems like a paradise. There are wildflowers in the spring, wild geese in autumn, pony rides, and warm and happy times together. But each year brings unexpected disasters as well- storms destroy the crops; there is sickness, fire, and always, always, unpaid debts. The first four years often prove heartbreaking for the Wilders. Still, they have each other, and their little daughter Rose, and a fierce determination succeed. Characters: I didn't understand why Laura couldn't set Rose to working on things like Ma did on Laura and other sisters. I also am shocked that for so...