From: Ginny Moore Kruse <gmkruse>
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 1997 13:23:29 -0500

Vivian, you raised two important observations about Nim and the War Effort. (see below for Vivian's message and my earlier one about this book below.) I can't respond to your point about jacket art calligraphy. Maybe someone else can.

I appreciate your well articulated concern about the thousands of American citizens of Japanese heritage of all ages who *were* mistaken for "the enemy" during WW2. At the end of this message, I'll list several books for young readers about what is generally referred to as Japanese American Internment Camps. Before that, however, I want to say that Milly Lee's short, spare text is written entirely from the Chinese American child Nim's life experience during WW2. Nim knew about her grandfather's pin. Lee decided to include the reference to the pin. It's up to readers to decide if Lee's decision was wise. The pin does not figure into the plot but it is a cultural, real detail in this particular family's WW2 experience. It's there. The fictional pin is based on a real pin.

Vivian, your point raises one of the on-going challenges for writers and readers of historical fiction. How much must be told in order to write a particular story? To tell the whole story? What is enough? too much? what is the "whole" story, anyway?

I often hear words to this effect from well intentioned adults: I'll make sure that children who read Nim and the War Effort will also read The Journey or The Bracelet. In my opinion adults who say this are not living in the real world of kids and books and reading. Children find books to read in all kinds of places and ways. We caring adults cannot always be breathing down their necks to give them a context for the books they have in hand at the moment. This is possible in a classroom but not in a public library, not in life in general. Typically we gain one insight here and another insight there, and then we make up our own minds - for the moment. Readers of historical fiction (or movie-goers seeing films set in a particular time/place) will never have all points of view at their disposal.

Vivian, your thoughtful comments are absolutely critical ones, and you've made them by providing specific examples - an excellent way to encourage further thought and discussion. You've caused me to remember two semi-autobiographical novels for older readers, novels set during/following WW2 with young female protagonists who according to history would have regarded each other abstractly "the enemy": So Far from the Bamboo Grove by Yoko Kawashima Watkins (first published by Lothrop, 1986) about a Japanese girl and Year of Impossible Good-byes by Sook Nyul Choi (first pub. by Houghton Mifflin, 1991) about a Korean girl. Each is written from that protagonist's point of view. Readers of each either know or don't know about the complex, long-standing shared history and mutual enmity between Korea and Japan and many of their citizens across many generations - even today. What were those novelists to do? They each decided to write works of fiction limited to their own stories. It's up to the readers to somehow place those works within a larger context. Some will. Some won't.

Digression: Ditto above for adult readers of Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson, a best selling adult novel set during WW2 involving a community that watches some of its citizens be sent to a Japanese American internment camp and then deals with the aftermath.

Maybe others in the CCBC-NET community will want to comment on Nim and the War Effort or maybe some of you will provide other examples of historical fiction set during WW2, a time when - to be sure - there were many definitions of "the enemy."

Meanwhile, here are several books about the U.S. internment of citizens of all ages with Japanese heritage. Their imprisonment in "internment camps" has been documented in several books for young readers, books such as: 1) an illustrated book The Journey based on a mural by Sheila Hamanaka
(Orchard, 1990); 2) a nonfiction book based on a 3rd grade classroom diary The Children of Topaz by Michael Tunnel and George Chilcoat (Holiday House, 1996); 3) a nonfiction book for older readers A Fence away from Freedom by Ellen Levine (Putnam, 1995); 4) a picture story Baseball Saved Us written by Ken Michizuki and illustrated by Dom Lee (Lee & Low, 1993); and 5) a picture story The Bracelet written by Yoshiko Uchida and illustrated by Joanna Yardley (Philomel, 1993). 6) Nancy Daniels referred to Yoshiko's Uchida's books about the internment. They include the novels for children Journey to Topaz (first published by Scribner in 1971) and its sequel Journey Home (first published by McElderry Books, 1978). Uchida wrote from experience about the internment as well as for children about the internment.

It all makes me realize how skillfully Giff handled the complexity of the time/place/plot in Lily's Crossing. She made it all look easy, didn't she? (the writing part, that is)... Sincerely, Ginny
*************************************** Ginny Moore Kruse (gmkruse at ccbc.soemadison.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) A Library of the School of Education (www.soemadison.wisc.edu/ccbc/) University of Wisconsin - Madison


I am very interesting in books that give readers another perspective on a familiar theme but I am concerned about the line in the book to which Ginny quotes about the pin worn by grandfather "so they would not be mistaken for the enemy." While this may be historically accurate let us not forget that thousands of Japanese Americans,WERE mistaken for the enemy. They lost jobs, homes, personal freedom and were interned in remote camps until war's end. The line about the pin disturbed me very much-- my first reaction was to reject the book entirely. After some reflection I see the value of using the book in order to explore the issue of racial/ethnic discrimination during WWII.

Also I noticed that the cover illustration has Chinese calligraphy on a store front which looks suspiciously like Korean. (Reflecting the illustrator's background ?) Hmmm...Maybe I'm just being picky. Vivian Greblo (vgreblo at students.wisc.edu) Ginny Moore Kruse wrote: To begin, I'll mention Nim and the War Effort written by Milly Lee and illustrated by Yangsook Choi (Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1997). This highly visual short story appears at first to be a picture book but it has a longer text and more challenging content than most preschoolers find interesting. Even the title's reference to the "war effort" knits the story to a WW2 phrase very familiar to children then, girls and boys alike who pulled their wagons along the sidewalks and roads to collect newspapers or scrap metal "for the war effort." Lee's text digs into one dimension of such a war effort, i.e. collecting newspapers for a school competition. There's more to this story than pulling a wagon around to collect papers. Lee's text deftly incorporates at least three types of details: selected ones from the decade, certain WW2 activity of many children, and specific cultural elements. On one page we read that on a lapel of Grandfather's coat "was a small pin with two flags - the American flag and the Chinese flag. Many Chinese men began wearing the pin with two flags after the war with Japan started so they would not be pin, but the pin is one detail that can sear into a reader's consciousness to provoke later questions or thoughts. The story quickly continues showing Nim getting ready for to go to school by putting her Chinese calligraphy supplies into a cigar box. Although attending Chinese school after a day at public school would not be a universal early 40s experience, the use of a well-made cigar box for any kind of supply or collection probably was... Ginny
Received on Thu 16 Oct 1997 01:23:29 PM CDT