A review by misterintensity
Within These Lines by Stephanie Morrill

4.0

Italian American Evalina and Japanese American Taichi are dating. Their relationship is put to test when the U.S. government interns Japanese Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbor. With Taichi in an internment camp, Evalina struggles to keep the relationship alive. Morrill wrote a powerful story that shows the impact of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II on an interracial couple. Evalina and Taichi is already a couple when the novel begins, albeit their relationship is kept a secret from both sets of parents. The novel alternates between Taichi's life inside Manzanar Relocation Center and Evalina's life outside of it. The book excels at showing what went on at Manzanar, particularly the tension between Japanese Americans who supported the United States's are effort and those who supported Japan's. Evalina and Taichi are the point of view characters but we also spend some time with their family and friends which makes their story feel more natural, although some readers may find one or both characters and their romance a little too "perfect." Highly recommended for libraries that want to build their young adult historical fiction collections.