Book Talk #10- Thin Wood Walls

        Thin Wood Walls is a coming of age story about a boy who is Japanese-American that lived near Seattle, Washington prior to WWII.  11 year old Joe Hanada and his family are living the American dream and are excited about the upcoming Christmas Holiday but after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941that all changed.  Joe’s family and all the other Japanese-American families were split up forced to move to War Relocation Camps by the FBI.  Joe’s dad is taken somewhere else because he is suspected to be a spy.   Joe’s family lives in the internment camp, in a shack that has “thin wood walls,” that is surrounded by soldiers and barbed wire.  The FBI questions all of these people to see if they are loyal to America or Japan which makes Joe feel torn between his loyalty to his country and his Japanese heritage.  Joe keeps a journal throughout his experience in the camp where he writes poetry and talks about his concern for his father who he has not seen since the family was split up and for his brother who joined the American Army to prove is loyalty to America.  Joe is forced to grow up quickly when his world is changed overnight.   
           This was a great read but I thought this was an intense story that gives a new prospective to what was going on for some Americans at this time.  I think because Pearl Harbor and WWII was so devastating that the fact America had their own internment camps gets over looked; I didn’t learn about these camps until I was in college.  This would be a good book for an 8^th grade class and I think this would be a great book to incorporate into a lesson on the effect of WWII on Americans.  America went through so many changes during WWII but not everyone’s experience was the same.  WWII was harder on some Americans and I think this is a good example of that difference. 

Book Talk #9- Of Mice and Men

 

              Of Mice and Men is about a two friends George and Lennie who are from the same town.   George has taken care of Lennie since Lennie’s aunt died.  These companions are basically homeless and travel around looking for farm work.  It is obvious that Lennie had a mental disability which George tries to hide from people they meet. Lennie is big and extremely strong, but does not know his own strength and is attracted to things that are soft and fluffy.  For example, he squeezed a mouse to death because he loved it so much but he really does not have a mean bone in his body.  George gets him and Lennie a job on a farm and when they get there George does all the talking so that no one knows the Lennie lack intelligence but this makes their new boss suspicious because it seems that George  is trying to protect Lennie.  This new job goes pretty good for the two of them.  They work hard and live in the bunkhouse and even Lennie has a job taking care of the rabbits.   But Lennie’s brute strength soon gets him in big trouble again and the story ends in a way you won’t be expecting.   

                I think this story would be a good story for a reader at a 8^th, 9^th or 10^th grader because although the reading is not difficult some events in story are not appropriate for the younger crowd.  This is a very short read and the storyline moves quickly so I think that it will keeps students’ interest.  You can use this book when teaching about the Wage Worker’s West of the late 1930’s and what people did for at time. I like this book and it’s one of the few that I actually enjoy by John Steinbeck