Illuminates the story of a Japanese American activist’s experiences with internment and her perseverance in rebuilding her life.
In 1941, Sato’s family was living near Sacramento, California, on her family’s small but successful farm. Seven of her younger siblings were in school, another was in the U.S. Army, and Sato herself had just entered college. A year later, everything had changed: In February 1942, the U.S. government forced anyone with one-sixteenth or more Japanese ancestry into incarceration camps. In a straightforward and affecting narrative, the authors take readers through a personal journey well embedded in its historical context. The Satos’ experience is recounted alongside the dominant sentiments and political policies of the times. Sidebars further elucidate events, enhanced by photographs and archival documents. One such inset explains the contracting of photographers to paint internment in a positive light. Another examines the euphemistic language used to influence public perceptions of this suspension of civil rights. After the war, Sato pursued a career in nursing in the U.S. Air Force and in public health. A Korean War veteran and president of the Sacramento branch of the Japanese American Citizens League, she has been active as a public speaker, making school visits to educate youth about internment and advocating for human rights. This timely and important story puts a human face on a shameful chapter in American history.
A moving, insightful portrait. (foreword, author’s note, family tree, timeline, glossary, source notes, bibliography, further information, index, photo credits) (Biography. 12-16)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5415-5901-1
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Twenty-First Century/Lerner
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
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BOOK REVIEW
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PERSPECTIVES
One of the world’s most celebrated creators of civic architecture is profiled in this accessible, engaging biography.
Similar in style and format to her Everybody Paints!: The Lives and Art of the Wyeth Family (2014) and Wideness and Wonder: The Life and Art of Georgia O’Keeffe (2011), Rubin’s well-researched profile examines the career, creative processes, and career milestones of Maya Lin. Rubin discusses at length Lin’s most famous achievement, designing the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Chinese-American Lin was a reserved college student who entered and won the competition to design and build the memorial. Her youth and ethnicity were subjects of great controversy, and Rubin discusses how Lin fought to ensure her vision of the memorial remained intact. Other notable works by Lin, including the Civil Rights Memorial for the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, a library and chapel for the Children’s Defense Fund, the Museum of Chinese in America, and the outdoor Wave Field project are examined but not in as much depth as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Attractively designed, the book is illustrated extensively with color photos and drawings.
An engaging, admiring, and insightful portrait of an uncompromising, civic-minded, visionary artist. (bibliography, source notes, index) (Biography. 12-15)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4521-0837-7
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 21, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
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A history of U.S. voting rights and the unrelenting barrage of challenges to them, with a chapter that updates the original 2020 edition.
Despite an occasional bobble (no, all the states did not send representatives to the Constitutional Convention, and the Shelby County vs. Holder decision, devastating as it was, was not responsible for “overturning” the Voting Rights Act), college professor Jenkins delivers a broadly comprehensive overview that takes readers from “No taxation without representation!” to the events of Jan. 6, 2021 and beyond, with updates covering the failure of the Arizona recount and the recent flurry of legislation designed to further depress our already chronically low levels of voter participation. The additions lend currency to the story, but apathetic readers are more likely to catch a spark from other histories, such as Susan Goldman Rubin’s Give Us the Vote! (2020). The graphic format does little to animate this account, as aside from some redrawn historical news photos, the drably duotone art runs to clumsily rendered portraits of figures in static poses stiffly restating talking points, uttering (in)famous quotes (“Why do we want all these people from shithole countries?”)—or in a running conceit, imitating game show announcers: “Congratulations! John Adams, you’ve won the presidency!” The color scheme also minimizes differences in skin color, and visual elements frequently look crammed in among the fulsome blocks of lecture-y narrative.
Broad, deep, and on a significant topic but more utilitarian than inspirational. (voting information, source notes) (Graphic nonfiction. 13-16)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3999-6
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
Categories: TEENS & YOUNG ADULT NONFICTION | SOCIAL TOPICS | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT HISTORY
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