The book tells two stories alternatively: one of a delinquent adolescent who newly moves to a suburb and ends up spending a night in jail when he gets caught stealing. Another of a Japanese American boy forced to move to the relocation camp after Pearl Harbor. Slowly, as the story unfolds, the two stories meet up.

It's a beautiful and poignant tale. The sumie style for the Japanese tangent really evolves the loneliness and sparseness of the camp. However, without any words, it's also at times difficult to actually understand what happens, and it feels that some narrative detail is sacrificed using this style of storytelling. However, I've read a few stories about this slice of history so I get some idea what happens.

putting into bookbox.

This came back in my manga & graphic novel book box.

This was very interesting premise wise. The two stories alternating back and forth move the reader from WWII era California to a modern day suburb of Chicago. I really liked how the two stories merge as the story unfolded. The artwork for this book was amazing. But like Azuki, I wish that there had been dialog included for the storyline set during WWII. The wordless style of storytelling was poignant, but a little bit of dialog would have made events a bit easier to follow.

I really enjoyed this little book Azuki. Thank you so much for including it in my manga book box.

Adding in to the Far East Book Box.

Picked this up in the Far East bookbox...will read and then give to a friend's son, who loves graphic novels. I've heard of this one, and am looking forward to it.

Given to a friend's daughter, who is getting into graphic novels. Dang it! I thought I reviewed it when I read it. I really enjoyed the interplay between the present day and the past, and how they gradually moved together. Also, the very different ways that boys can weather adolescence, depending on who they are, and how that interacts with their circumstances. I think that there are no words in the internment camp scenes, because that way it isn't interpreted for us: we have to acknowledge their existence (in the U.S.!) and find our own words to deal with that history. The person who was interned isn't letting us off by interpreting for us. BTW, Italian-Americans were also interned in WWII. We have to remember our history, and try hard not to repeat it!