Elise Sontag, a sixteen-year-old German-American girl in Iowa, is taken with her family in 1943 to an internment camp in Crystal City, Texas, after her father is suspected of disloyalty. In the camp she befriends Mariko Inoue, a Japanese-American girl, and the two form a close friendship against the harshness of life behind barbed wire. Meissner draws on the real internment of Germans, Japanese, and others during the Second World War, and tells how the girls hold on to hope and cope with separation.
A good choice for readers who like historical fiction about lesser-known episodes of American history, and young adult readers curious about home-front injustice. The friendship at its center keeps it personal.
Clear-cut; an easy read.
Best for readers like The Story Seeker. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 2019
- Language
- EN
