by Sandra Dallas, 237 pages
The year is 1942. The bombing of Pearl Harbor is recent history, and America has entered WWII. Japanese Americans in the U.S. are being treated as second-class citizens.
12-year-old Tomi Itano's father has been taken away by the FBI for no reason other than being Japanese. Ironically, her father loves America and is proud to have raised his children to be exemplary citizens. Soon Tomi's family is forced to leave their home in California and they are transported to to an inland "relocation" camp in Colorado. The conditions in the camp are barely habitable - more like a prison than a camp, but Tomi's family insists on maintaining a positive outlook as they wait to hear from her father. Tomi spends several years in Tallgrass, and time takes its toll on the family. Will Tomi ever see her father again? And will years spent imprisoned by the country she loved change her opinion of America?
Red Berries, White Clouds, Blue Sky is the second novel by Sandra Dallas taking place at Tallgrass relocation camp, but offers a different perspective than the other novel - Tallgrass.
This title is a Mark Twain Readers Award Nominee 2016-17. I look forward to using it as springboard for generating student interest in this piece of America's past.
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