Middle Grade Review: Heroes

Frank and Stanley are best friends, growing up on Pearl Harbor. They love superheroes and work together to create comic books. Frank writes the stories and Stanley draws them. They were meeting with a family friend on the USS Utah for a tour. 

The tour has barely started when Japanese planes flew overhead dropping bombs. From that moment on, Frank and Stanley's lives were in danger. They fight to make their way back home. 

Frank is white and Stanley is Japanese American. While the boys get back home, Stanley's mother recognizes that things have changed. She's burying their Japanese ancestry items.  People start looking at them differently afterwards. 

Even when they get home, the boys are not safe. 

My Thoughts: The story takes place in three parts: Before, During, and After. I loved the different parts and the fact that the book took place mostly in one day. There's lot of action and danger that kept me turning the pages quickly. I felt terrible for both the boys for all the horrors they witnessed. However, I felt worse for Stanley has he dealt with racism from people who had known his family.  While this book doesn't go much beyond the day of the attack, it does talk about the horrific history of the Japanese internment camps. I really enjoyed the question that this book sets out to answer: What makes a hero? I love how it worked as a topic for the main characters but also for the country. The point that we joined the war after an attack and not before raises some questions.  This is a great book for an introduction to Pearl Habor and the reasons America joined to war. 

Cover Thoughts: Great

Source: Checked out from the library

Library Recommendation: Highly recommended for your school and public library's collection.

Tween Tuesday Review: A Boy At War

Adam's father is a Navy man. Adam's used to moving and making new friends. However, he's having a harder time of it in Hawaii.

He thinks he might have made a new friend, but Davi's Japanese. America is on the brink of war with Japan. Adam's father doesn't want him to befriend Davi. He believes that Adam's actions reflect on the family, and more importantly on himself. He forbids Adam from hanging out with Davi.

Adam's already promised to go fishing with Davi early the next morning. He rises, intending to go apologize, and break off their friendship. But the allure of fishing is too great. Together, Adam, Davi and Davi's cousin sneak onto Pearl Harbor where they spend the morning fishing.

Their peaceful morning's interrupted by planes flying overhead. At first, Adam thinks they're in a movie. It's not too long before he realizes that that planes are Japanese and they're bombing the ships in Pearl Harbor. His father is on one of those ships.

Adam and his friends race for shore, but they're dodging bullets, bombs, and suspicious people. Can they get to safety before one of them is seriously injured?

My Thoughts: I chose this book for our middle school book club at the library. It's a popular book with the teens. Also I wanted to read something connected with Pearl Harbor for the 70th year after the attack on Pearl Harbor. I really enjoyed it. I liked the action. I liked reading about Adam's family life and life on the island. I really liked what happened after the attack. I think I'll continue and read A Boy No More.

Cover Thoughts: It doesn't entirely match the story, but it fits in nicely

Source: my Library