A review by panda_incognito
Write to Me: Letters from Japanese American Children to the Librarian They Left Behind by Cynthia Grady
3.0
This nonfiction picture book tells the story of how a librarian stayed in touch with Japanese American children while they were in interment camps during World War II. It is very simple, and includes illustrations of the children's letters along with depictions of the librarian's surroundings and the camps that the children were in. This is a good introduction for elementary school students, but is light on content for an adult reader.
I have two concerns with this book that keep me from rating it four stars. One is that it unnecessarily includes a letter that references "Little Black Sambo." The child's comment merely serves as an illustration for the heat, but this is likely to catch parents off guard and require a conversation that they didn't sign up for. Since the book is about combating discrimination, it seems odd that one of the letters included would reference a story with so much racial baggage. Surely, out of the whole collection, there would have been something else more appropriate.
Secondly, the timeline in the back specifically names three Democrat presidents who were involved in future reevaluations of the interment camps, but does not name Ronald Reagan for the timeline entry about the U.S. government finally apologizing for what happened. This seems to be nothing more than bias on the author's part, since it breaks with her format and approach. Also, she only refers to an apology, without mentioning that the U.S. government actually paid reparations to many survivors. This is a very significant fact, and even though not all readers will look through the timeline anyway, the author should have included this.
I have two concerns with this book that keep me from rating it four stars. One is that it unnecessarily includes a letter that references "Little Black Sambo." The child's comment merely serves as an illustration for the heat, but this is likely to catch parents off guard and require a conversation that they didn't sign up for. Since the book is about combating discrimination, it seems odd that one of the letters included would reference a story with so much racial baggage. Surely, out of the whole collection, there would have been something else more appropriate.
Secondly, the timeline in the back specifically names three Democrat presidents who were involved in future reevaluations of the interment camps, but does not name Ronald Reagan for the timeline entry about the U.S. government finally apologizing for what happened. This seems to be nothing more than bias on the author's part, since it breaks with her format and approach. Also, she only refers to an apology, without mentioning that the U.S. government actually paid reparations to many survivors. This is a very significant fact, and even though not all readers will look through the timeline anyway, the author should have included this.