Review by Booklist Review
Gr. 2-4. The traditional sports story of the outsider who gains social acceptance when he hits a home run gets a new dimension in this picture book about a Japanese American kid interned in a desert concentration camp during World War II. In a spare, first-person narrative, "Shorty" tells how he and his family are suddenly moved from their home and set down behind barbed wire in a barracks in the desert. His father organizes the building of a baseball field, and, in sight of the armed watchtower guard, Shorty learns to play. After the war, when they return home, things are still bad: at school he has to eat lunch alone, and he still hears "Jap" insults--until he joins the team and whacks the ball right over the fence. Fences and watchtowers are in the background of many of Lee's moving illustrations, some of which were inspired by Ansel Adams' 1943 photographs of Manzanar. In shades of brown, Lee's images evoke the bleak desert isolation, and also the boy's loneliness in the school lunchroom after the war; in contrast is the focus on his close relationship with his father and the warmth of the team. The baseball action will grab kids--and so will the personal experience of bigotry. ~--Hazel Rochman
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
These collaborators' prepossessing debut book introduces readers to a significant and often-neglected--for children, at any rate--chapter in U.S. history: the internment of Japanese-Americans during WW II. The nameless narrator and his family inhabit a camp in the parched American desert, where life becomes a bit more bearable after the internees build a baseball field, and the boy gains self-worth by hitting a championship home run. Although Mochizuki's stylish prose evocatively details the harsh injustice of the camps, some may feel the book suffers from uneven pacing. An introduction and much of the text are spent on background, leaving little time devoted to the actual camp regimen. In addition, the ending, in which the hero returns to school after the war and is again saved from prejudice by baseball, seems tacked on. Lee's stirring illustrations were inspired by Ansel Adams's photographs of the Manzanar internment camp. In the muted browns, sepias and golds of the desert, the artist movingly conveys the bleakness of camp life, with its cramped quarters, swirling dust storms and armed guards. The baseball scenes' motion and excitement lend effective contrast; the final illustration stands in particularly moving counterpoint to the earlier rigors. Ages 4-up. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 2-4-- After briefly describing the way his family was removed from their home and sent to an internment camp for Japanese Americans during World War II, the narrator, ``Shorty,'' tells how baseball was used as a diversion from the dire situation in which the camp's inhabitants found themselves. After improvising a baseball diamond, uniforms, and equipment, they played games. In one of these contests, the usually weak-hitting Shorty catches a glimpse of one of the ever-present guards and channels his anger toward the man into his swing, resulting in a winning home run. After the war and his return home, he continues to play ball while at the same time being subjected to racial taunts, again refocusing his anger to produce positive results on the diamond. The sport plays a secondary role to the blatant racism depicted in this somber book. The paintings, scratchboard overlaid with oils, effectively reflect the tone of the story. Pair this powerful title with Hamanaka's The Journey (Orchard, 1990). --Tom S. Hurlburt, La Crosse Public Library, WI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Mochizuki and Lees poignant story of a young Japanese American boy trying to make sense of the world after he and his family are sent to an internment camp during WWII was one of the first American picture books to talk about Japanese American internment; to acknowledge racism and its effects on a child; or even to feature characters from marginalized communities. This twenty-fifth anniversary edition contains moving author and illustrator notes: Mochizuki hopes that the book has been a role model, a story people of all backgrounds can relate to personally; Lee hopes the books original readers will share it with a new generation as we face the risk of history repeating itself. martha v. parravano July/Aug p.155(c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Drawing on his Japanese-American parents' experiences, a new author uses his narrator's struggle to become a better, and more accepted, ballplayer to portray a WW II internment camp. Quietly, ``Shorty'' describes his family's sudden removal to the camp in 1942, the grim surroundings, the restiveness his dad hopes to counter by building a baseball diamond. Materials are improvised (uniforms are made from mattress ticking), but the game soon thrives. Still, Shorty is usually an ``easy out'' until anger at the perpetually watching guard inspires him to hit a homer-- whereupon he sees the guard give him thumbs-up and a grin. But the real focus here is the camp and the prejudice that caused it. Back home after the war, Shorty finds friendly teammates but still hears racist taunts when he plays--and still uses the anger he feels to strengthen his resolve and do his best. Using scratchboard overlaid with oils, Lee (who grew up in Korea) provides splendidly evocative art whose somber tones are enriched with luminous color; he's a keen observer of baseball and the camp milieu. Fine debuts for author, illustrator, and publisher. (Picture book. 6-10)
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