Book Blog 3
Karim Hallak
Its San Francisco, California 1942. Ben Uchida was peacefully going back home from his friends house, then all of a sudden the feels that everyone is staring at him, but he doesn’t really worry about it, until the reaches home. He noticed that his sister Naomi was crying, but she rarely ever cries, and his moms looked worried and her face was pale. The radio was turned on very loud and Ben couldn’t really hear anything except Japs and Bomb, but instead of the announcer saying Japanese he said Japs, which was insulting to Japanese people, but later on he finally heard that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and he realized that probably everyone in San Francisco probably hate Japanese people now. As time passes by, the hate grows more, causing American people to kill Japanese people, and a restaurant that Ben and his family used to go now has a sign that says: We poison both Rats and Japs, one day when Ben was going of the bus to school, and old lady asked him if the was Chinese or Japanese, and he told her he was American which he was, but she replied with: “Go back to Japan, where you belong”. As days pass, mysterious men enter the Uchida house, and ask the father to go with them just for questioning, so Mr. Uchida accepted they request and went with them, and that when things began to become really bad, all the Japanese had to move to barracks in “Mirror Lake” the Uchida family had to sell all their belongings in order to move to the barracks, so one day they boarded the train and took off to Mirror Lake. Will they survive? Will Mr. Uchida return? Read the book to find out.
The historical setting of the novel is World War II (A global war).
"World War II." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Mar. 2014. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.
The effect was that since the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, they made all the Japanese move to barracks in Mirror Lake. (This takes place throughout the whole book so there isnt a page number)
The main character is Ben Uchida, Ben is a patient, loyal, big, buff and a responsible 12 year old.
The other tends to try to put you in Ben’s shoes like on page 5, when Ben’s mom and dad were burning traditional Japanese things that were in their house so that no one would know their Japanese, you could feel the adrenaline going through Ben's body (And being shocked in awe).
The story is in 1st person because its a journal, and it helps develop the main character because you can see everything from his point of view.
The theme of the novel is overcoming challenges because Ben has to overcome the fact that the has to move into a different society and environment.
I really liked the book because of several reasons, and some of them are that the book was actually based on a true story and the way they put it in a journal was great. I think they published this journal because there are several lessons in it, like to never give up, to not be ashamed of who you are and that we are are equal, even though some people in the book didn't think so. I would recommend it to a friend that likes adventurous war books. I see myself in this book in Ben Uchida’s shoes because him and I have many similarities, for example we both never give up until we get what we want (A good thing). Finally, I would rate this book a 9/10 because of how intense it is.
1) Barrack: A small house for soldiers
2) Spigot: A small plug.
3) Vacancy: An unoccupied job.
4) Pronunciation: The way a word is pronounced.
5) Batter: The player at bat in Baseball.
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