I received a free ARC through NetGalley (March 1, 2014)
4 stars
I really feel like there is not enough literature out there about the Japanese Internment camps. Yes, it is an embarrassing part of United States history, but it is a real part of it. I would bet that most kids really don't know what happened. Mariko Nagai managed to write a beautiful story about a sad time.
Mina is a Japanese-American girl living in Seattle when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. Her father is taken to jail, and then she, her mother, her brother, and her grandfather are sent to multiple internment camps. Imagine, as a young child having to pack up what is most important to you, leave your pet and your best friend, and go live in deplorable conditions. It breaks people.
Dust of Eden is written in verse. I don't like verse. Still, I appreciated the poetic value of this story, and verse really seems appropriate. I did like that the verse read more like an actual story and less like a poem. It also makes for a very quick read. There was a lot of emotion packed into a very small book. The author packed a large story into a small book without managing to miss anything important. She even managed to show that not everyone was as heartless as those that showed hate toward the Japanese-Americans only because of their race. This is a great story for tweens to read to learn about a very important but overlooked part of US history.
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