Welcome to Litsy!

Yes it‘s cliche to say that truth is stranger than fiction & yet…Truth is also more horrifying, heartbreaking, frustrating, & enraging…all of which is encapsulated in this outstanding YA historical fiction about the forced internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII. I don‘t yet have all the words I need to write a well reasoned review because every time I think about what happened in the book/real life it makes me immeasurably sad. Excellent.

Thursday morning reading…

#OnTheGo #ReadingOnTheTrain

This book captures the pain and history of when the American born Chinese were send to concentration camps at the beginning of WWll. It was a heartbreaking story about the feeling of loosing what they once had, and wondering if they will ever get it back.

“Outside the camp, the barbed wire, the guard towers, the city, the country that hates us. We are not free.“

This book is very powerful and moving.

This historical fiction book tells the story of 14 second generation Japanese american citizens whose lives were changed after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. It discusses the hardships they faced in an interment camp and how they fight against injustice.

A beautifully written book about Japanese Internment during WWII. The characters were well written and their stories feel honest. 100% recommend.

Hello all! I have been MIA due to work stress AND my major project for my Children‘s and Teen‘s grad class, a book trailer over “We are not free” by Traci Chee. It‘s a 1:55 video so it won‘t take long to watch! ☺️https://thediverseshelvesbookreviews.blogspot.com/2022/03/young-adult-book-trailer-we-are-not.html

This book is everything that historical fiction should be, and the forced removal of Japanese Americans during WWII is such an important topic right now. I learned so much while truly coming to care for the characters. The author included a note in the back where she explained how certain characters and events were inspired by her own grandparents' experiences and the explained some of her language choices.

I was in the mood for some historical fiction this weekend, so I brought home a stack of 4 different books to choose from. Intending to read the first chapter of each and deciding from there, I picked this one up first... and then didn't put it back down until I was almost 100 pages in! Decision made 😂

An excellent read. I fell in love with her characters and cried through their heartaches. An excellent telling of a shameful period of our history. It amazes me that even today some people can act this way.

This book broke my heart, it pulled me in, made me fall in love with the characters and shattered me. I learned a lot reading this book a lot of facts that had been glossed over and need to be known, perspectives that need to be read. Another one I think every high school should have as required reading.
For my full thoughts see: https://heartandsoulbooks.blogspot.com/2021/05/we-are-not-free.html

This is my book club read for the month. It‘s about 14 Japanese-American teens whose lives are upended after the attack on Pearl Harbor as they are removed from their homes and forced into incarceration camps.
4 stars

Starting this baby today!

Fourteen teens who have grown up together in Japantown, San Francisco. Fourteen teens whose lives are turned upside down when over 100,000 people of Japanese ancestry are removed from their homes and forced into desolate incarceration camps. Some of the young men there are recruited to serve as American soldiers in WWII battles-imagine their mixed feelings and betrayal. Heartbreaking but a story that needed to be told. #bookspinbingo

This book is a printz honor book the book is about a 14 teens that live in San Francisco they were of Japanese ethnicity and it tells the experience they all faced such as racism during WWII. This book would be a great LC book and the ELS strategies that can be used are 2,4,5,23 and UDL 3.1 and 3.2

#ucflae3414sp21

This worksheet can be used while reading the novel to learn more and more about the characters
https://pin.it/76OlpuB

I've read so many great books this month that I've decided to split my usual monthly highlights post on my blog into two parts. It's the best kind of problem!

I wanted to love We Are Not Free, but it is a heavy story. I feel like if I had read this as a teen, my mind would have been blown and my heart would have broken open. As an adult, it is a good read to get fictional perspective of the (still continuing today) historic racism in our country from a fictional teen lens. 5 stars for educational value, 3 stars for emotional connection. Well written, though too many perspectives. #yabooks #ireadya

I was deeply disappointed in this book. When my hold finally came in, I was so excited, bu then I started reading it. It‘s told from fourteen different people‘s points of view and all the chapters are in first person. And, it‘s not even really one big plot, just hundreds of short stories. 2⭐️

A poignant, lively, eye-opening novel in the voices of 14 teens from San Francisco, who are forced to live in prison camps along with over 100,000 other Japanese Americans during World War II. An outstanding & heartbreaking portrayal of injustice and resilience. The rise, during 2020, in hate crimes against Asian Americans & Asian Canadians is a sad indication that the message of this novel remains relevant. #YA for everybody.

“Wait,” I say. “You met Eleanor Roosevelt?”
“Yeah. She was saying we had to be in camps because we hadn‘t been integrated into the rest of American society like the Germans & the Italians, and I told her we hadn‘t integrated because we weren‘t allowed to buy or move anywhere except into neighborhoods that were already Japanese, so whose fault was it that we couldn‘t integrate?”

In PM Magazine, Dr Seuss, the kids‘ book author, has been drawing us with pig noses and wiry moustaches, queuing up for boxes of TNT. There are all sorts of cartoons like that. Sometimes we look like pigs, sometimes monkeys, sometimes rats.
We never look like us.