Farewell to Manzanar
This non-fiction text follows Jeanne Wakatsuki and her family from the morning of the attack on Pearl Harbor to the following years, detailing their struggles to survive, relocate, and find happiness. Houston and Houston's book is a beautiful account of a familiar story from a new perspective. While schools focus on the event from the perspective of the American soldiers, the authors take the reader through the lives of those who lived during the time, but weren't involved in the conflict as soldiers were. As the story unfolds, the reader follows Jeanne as she is torn between her country and her family, trying to negotiate life in tumultuous times. For any American History course, this text should be essential reading. It not only relates to the events of Pearl Harbor, but it describes the life of those affected by interment or other government mandates. In some ways, Farewell to Manzanar is a corollary to books like the Diary of Anne Frank, as both as texts follow war through the perspective of children. Based on its own merits, though, Farewell to Manzanar is a harrowing, moving experience.