I was hesitant to start this book, worried that the short poems might be boring or that it would fail to tell the story. But I loved it, read the whole thing in a day and have such strong emotional attachments to the story and the characters, including the places they loved. This is a piece of history I had never heard about and am so glad that this book exists to try to tell a little bit about how the American government interred people during WWII. ( )

Beautiful writing. Partial-page free verse provides the images that draw out the story of a young girl whose people have been forced to leave their homes "for security reasons". Their lives are greatly diminished when they can no longer access their hunting and foraging areas and have to leave a lot of their posessions, and the foods & supplies provided by the government are inadequate. On their return, they find that people (soldiers guarding the area?) have pilfered & damaged their homes. Another instance of the disrespect shown to the native peoples of this land. ( )

Each page contains a poem that weaves together the first-person narrative of a young girl, Vera, through her depressing journey through relocation camps with her friends and neighbors during the Japanese invasion of the Aleutian Islands. This story about Alaska natives being forced from their homes is both poetic and heart-breaking. ( )

Love Karen Hesse and reading about a forgotten time in American history. We aren't always the good guys, even though we like to frame ourselves this way. ( )

First person account told by Vera, a young teenage girl from Kashega on the Aleutian chain. During World War II, the Japanese invaded the islands circa 1942 and forced everyone to evacuate. The villagers end up finally near Ketchikan and try again at making a new life for themselves following their beliefs and traditions. ( )