![]() ![]() ![]() The Maki family and the other Japanese Americans are suddenly treated as outsiders and even enemies by white society. In 1941, during a church service, news reaches Bainbridge Island that Japan has attacked Pearl Harbor. They continue to send the letter back and forth, adding speech bubbles to the illustration until Alex writes “I love you,” which gets scribbled out. Instead, he sends a doodle of himself as a turtle with its head in the clouds facing a girl on the Eiffel Tower. Charlie refuses to send him a picture of herself until Alex sends one of him. Charlie is angry-not because of his race, but because he lied. In 1938, Alex confesses in one of his letters that he lied to Charlie by letting her believe that he is white, even though he is ethnically Japanese. Alex is a blossoming artist, and he frequently sends Charlie doodles, comics, and illustrations as their long-distance friendship blossoms. This guide references the 2019 TOR Teen paperback edition.Ĭontent Warning: This guide discusses wartime violence and death, depictions of genocide, and racial slurs in a historical context.Īs part of a school assignment, Alex Maki and Charlie Lévy begin exchanging letters in 1935, when they are both 10 years old. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |