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Loading... Weedflowerby Cynthia Kadohata
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. After Pearl Harbor was bombed, the United States decided to move Japanese-Americans and their families to internment camps. This is the story of a young girl uprooted from her family farm in California and sent to a camp on an Indian reservation in Arizona. (  ) pmlyayakkers | Oct 17, 2009 |  Although I liked the book, I quickly realized that it is suitable for younger readers despite the serious issues brought up throughout the story. Adults can read and enjoy this novel for what it is, but younger readers are likely to find it more entertaining. This novel is a good starting off point for discussions about World War II, Japanese internment camps, human rights, racism, life on reservations and politics. This coming of age story reads easily and quickly - it might be an excellent complement to other curriculum novels such as War Between the Classes. Overall, it was good and addresses an often 'brushed over' topic in history. ( ) cvosshans | Sep 24, 2009 | Touching story of a girl who struggles to fit in in a country that doesn't trust or accept her. (  ) Miranda_Paige | May 5, 2009 | Sumiko, a Japanese-American, experiences racism in and out of school. Then, immediately following the attack on Pearl Harbor, life changes dramatically for Sumiko and her family. First being moved to the racetracks, then to a more permanent internment camp, Sumiko has no choice but to come-of-age. This is a perfect book for learning about the internment of the Japanese-Americans during WWII. It is told with such realism that it's easy to think it's non-fiction. The research is evident and comes through clearly in the descriptions of life in the camps. The language is geared for grades 5 - 8, but it can certainly be enjoyed by adults. I think the many issues woven into the book were visited with much care and consideration. (4/5) Originally posted on: "Thoughts of Joy..." (  ) ThoughtsofJoyLibrary | Mar 11, 2009 | Weedflower is about Sumiko, a Japanese-American girl whose family is sent to a relocation camp in Poston, Arizona during WWII. This camp was actually on a reservation (constructed there against the wishes of the Mohave tribe who owned the land) and one of the themes of the book is the uneasy relations between the Japanese and the Indians there, shown through Sumiko's friendship with a Mohave boy named Frank. It was a good read, though unsurprisingly enraging. It's definitely a children's book, though. At first I was trying to put my finger on what made it feel so different than just a story told from a child's POV, but I think it was the all-tell, no-show style. Everything was spelled out. If I were reading an adult book like that, I'd say it was badly written, but I'll give her the benefit of the doubt that she just didn't trust kids to be able to infer anything. So that was a little annoying to me, but I'd still recommend it for the story. ( ) kyuuketsukirui | Nov 9, 2008 | 
Starred Review. Grade 5-8–When Pearl Harbor is attacked, the lives of a Japanese-American girl and her family are thrown into chaos. Sumiko, 12, and her younger brother, Tak-Tak, live with their aunt and uncle, grandfather Jiichan, and adult cousins on a flower farm in Southern California. Though often busy with chores, Sumiko enjoys working with the blossoms, particularly stock, or weedflowers (fragrant plants grown in a field). In the difficult days that follow the bombing, the family members fear for their safety and destroy many of their belongings. Then Uncle and Jiichan are taken to a prison camp, and the others are eventually sent to an assembly center at a racetrack, where they live in a horse stable. When they're moved to the Arizona desert, Sumiko misses the routine of her old life and struggles with despair. New friends help; she grows a garden with her neighbor and develops a tender relationship with a Mohave boy. She learns from him that the camp is on land taken from the Mohave reservation and finds that the tribe's plight parallels that of the incarcerated Japanese Americans. Kadohata brings into play some complex issues, but they realistically dovetail with Sumiko's growth from child to young woman. She is a sympathetic heroine, surrounded by well-crafted, fascinating people. The concise yet lyrical prose conveys her story in a compelling narrative that will resonate with a wide audience.–Marilyn Taniguchi, Beverly Hills Public Library, CA Kadohata combines impressive research and a lucent touch, bringing to life the confusion of dislocation.... "Kadohata clearly and eloquently conveys her heroine's mixture of shame, anger and courage. Readers will be inspired...." *Starred* "...it is a haunting story of dramatic loss and subtle triumphs."
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That all changes after the horrific events of Pearl Harbor. Other Americans start to suspect that all Japanese people are spies for the emperor, even if, like Sumiko, they were born in the United States! As suspicions grow, Sumiko and her family find themselves being shipped to an internment camp in one of the hottest deserts in the United States. The vivid color of her previous life is gone forever, and now dust storms regularly choke the sky and seep into every crack of the military barrack that is her new "home."
Sumiko soon discovers that the camp is on an Indian reservation and that the Japanese are as unwanted there as they'd been at home. But then she meets a young Mohave boy who might just become her first real friend...if he can ever stop being angry about the fact that the internment camp is on his tribe's land.
With searing insight and clarity, Newbery Medal-winning author Cynthia Kadohata explores an important and painful topic through the eyes of a young girl who yearns to belong. Weedflower is the story of the rewards and challenges of a friendship across the racial divide, as well as the based-on-real-life story of how the meeting of Japanese Americans and Native Americans changed the future of both.
(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:54 -0400)
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