A Diamond in the Desert
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4.1 • 35 Ratings
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
Twelve-year-old Tetsu eats, sleeps and breathes baseball. It’s all he ever thinks about. But after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Tetsu and his family are forced from their home into an internment camp in the Arizona desert with other Japanese Americans, and baseball becomes the last thing on his mind. The camp isn’t technically a prison, but it sure feels like one when there’s nothing to do and no place to go. So when a man starts up a boys’ baseball team, Tetsu is only too eager to play again. But with his sister suddenly falling ill, and his father taken away for questioning, Tetsu is forced to choose between his family and his love of the game.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, 13-year-old Tetsu Kishi, his mother, and his younger sister, Kimi, are imprisoned along with other Japanese Americans in the Gila River Relocation Center in Rivers, Ariz., an internment camp. Tetsu's father, meanwhile, has been sent away for questioning. Based on actual events, Fitzmaurice's (The Year the Swallows Came Early) second novel spans three years, divided into seasons. The brief vignettes that compose each section detail the harsh climate and conditions: the latrine has no walls; there is initially no school; the food makes Tetsu ill; and scorpions, rattlesnakes, and dust devils are abundant. When Tetsu befriends some boys who share his love of baseball, they start a team and build a ball field, rekindling Tetsu's hope. But after Kimi falls ill, Tetsu is once again compelled to fill his father's shoes. Tetsu provides intimate first-person narration throughout, as Fitzmaurice captures the dismal circumstances and somber mood of the camp, but also the much-needed hope that baseball provided for a few of those who were forced to live there. Ages 10 up.
