ktdakotareads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Confinement and Hate crime
Moderate: Death of parent and Medical content
Minor: Blood
smilagros's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
Graphic: Police brutality, Racism, Terminal illness, War, Cancer, Deportation, Confinement, Gaslighting, Hate crime, and Xenophobia
readingwithkaitlyn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Racism, Death, Blood, Murder, Confinement, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Gun violence, Medical content, Deportation, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Colonisation, Grief, and Hate crime
Minor: Cancer, Xenophobia, Terminal illness, War, and Death of parent
Incarceration camps, disconnection, WWII, Donald Trump, Pearl Habor, Anti-Muslim rhetoric (critical stance), Anti-Black racism, Pearl Habor, Civil Rights Movement, cigarettes, starvation, suffering, poor living conditions.sallytiffany's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Deportation, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Colonisation, and Hate crime
Moderate: Gun violence, Grief, Emotional abuse, War, Violence, and Death
rakkaussipsi's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Xenophobia, Racial slurs, and Racism
Moderate: Hate crime
queenqueso's review against another edition
5.0
Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Hate crime, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, and Xenophobia
harukoreads's review against another edition
5.0
The illustrations are crisp and clean, with expressive line work and a muted color palette that perfectly reflects the somber yet hopeful tone. The story itself goes into detail about the day-to-day realities of Camp as well as the intergenerational trauma and activism that resulted from this human rights atrocity.
As an OwnVoices reviewer (I'm a mixed yonsei woman who's grandparents were in the Camps just like the author/main character - not to mention a queer visual artist too!) I appreciated the nuance in this story, particularly the focus on how Camp had a lasting effect generations later. Like Kiku, my grandparents were in the Camps when they were young, and the violent anti-Japanese racism of the time discouraged them from passing down both language and Japanese culture to their children and grandchildren. And like Kiku, my family has watched the revival of American incarceration camps in the past few years and spoken out against them, knowing that just as they were wrong in the 1940s, they are wrong today. I appreciated how this book specifically highlighted the racial justice work of Japanese organizations Densho and Tsuru for Solidarity, and thought the focus on racial justice was done well (the descriptions of the model minority myth and Japanese anti-Blackness were particularly well done!).
Overall, this is a thoughtful, thorough, emotional account of Japanese incarceration through a modern lens. If you've never heard anything about the Japanese Incarceration camps, this is an easy entry point that is also visually stunning and poignant.
Moderate: Grief and Racism
Minor: Death, Gun violence, and Hate crime