Write to Me: Letters from Japanese American Children to the Librarian They Left Behind

Grady (I Lay My Stitches Down: Poems of American Slavery) recounts, in partial epistolary format, the true story of San Diego children’s librarian Clara Breed, who corresponded with her young Japanese-American patrons while they were interned during WWII. Excerpts from the children’s letters appear as small signed postcards that overlay many of Hirao’s muted colored-pencil illustrations. “Books make the day shorter and happier for us,” one postcard declares; others offer upsetting glimpses into camp life (“We live in a horse stable”). Miss Breed also brought books and small gifts to the children at their Arizona internment camp and advocated in other ways (“She wrote magazine articles. She wrote letters asking for a library and school for the imprisoned children”). Endpapers featuring captioned b&w photographs from that era—one shows Japanese-American children awaiting deportation—cement the story’s context for young readers. This affecting introduction to a distressing chapter in U.S. history and a brave librarian who inspired hope concludes with extensive back matter, including an author’s note, a timeline of Breed’s life, and a selected history of Japanese-Americans in the U.S. Ages 4–8. (Jan.)