Beneath the Wide Silk Sky
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Stunning, devastating, poignant: Debut author Emily Inouye Huey paints an intimate portrait of the racism faced by America's Japanese population during WWII. Perfect for fans of Ruta Sepetys and Sharon Cameron.
Sam Sakamoto doesn't have space in her life for dreams. With the recent death of her mother, Sam's focus is the farm, which her family will lose if they can't make one last payment. There's no time for her secret and unrealistic hope of becoming a photographer, no matter how skilled she's become. But Sam doesn't know that an even bigger threat looms on the horizon.
On December 7, 1941, Japanese airplanes attack the US naval base at Pearl Harbor. Fury towards Japanese Americans ignites across the country. In Sam's community in Washington State, the attack gives those who already harbor prejudice an excuse to hate.
As Sam's family wrestles with intensifying discrimination and even violence, Sam forges a new and unexpected friendship with her neighbor Hiro Tanaka. When he offers Sam a way to resume her photography, she realizes she can document the bigotry around her -- if she’s willing to take the risk. When the United States announces that those of Japanese descent will be forced into "relocation camps," Sam knows she must act or lose her voice forever. She engages in one last battle to leave with her identity -- and her family -- intact.
Emily Inouye Huey movingly draws inspiration from her own family history to paint an intimate portrait of the lead-up to Japanese incarceration, racism on the World War II homefront, and the relationship between patriotism and protest in this stunningly lyrical debut.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This meditative debut, inspired by Huey's family history, follows one Japanese teen's experiences living on the brink of WWII in 1941 Linley Island, Wash. Though she believes dreaming only leads to disappointment, high school sophomore Samantha Sakamoto, whose father is a "dirt poor Japanese farmer," wants to become a photographer. Her best friend and secret crush Beau McClatchy, a wealthy white boy, encourages her to enter a statewide photo contest, insisting that Sam "stop making yourself so... small." The tension and grief caused by Sam's mother's recent death is heightened by her family's dwindling finances, and the $50 grand prize would be a boon. When Sam meets and develops a crush on her older sister's classmate, Hiro Tanaka, she struggles to sort through her feelings for him and for Beau. The bombing of Pearl Harbor adds additional stress, bringing federal agents to Linley and escalating threats to the Japanese community. Huey imbues Sam's narration with familiarity, creating an urgent immediacy that guides this insightful story, whose personal beginnings the author outlines in the creator's acknowledgments. Ages 12–up.
