Red Berries, White Clouds, Blue Sky

Twelve-year-old Tomi Itano, the daughter of Japanese immigrants, is embarrassed and saddened when signs reading "No Japs" suddenly begin to appear around their California town, following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Opening in 1942, Dallas's novel follows Tomi's family's hardships as anti-Japanese prejudice erupts around them, and the FBI arrests her father under false charges of espionage. Tomi, her mother, and her two younger brothers are then removed from their successful strawberry farm, first banished to a horse stable and then to an internment camp in Tallgrass, Colo. (the setting of Dallas's adult novel Tallgrass). Tomi tries to remain optimistic despite her family's anger and uncertainty, and her mother takes on an unexpected leadership role as teacher in their newly formed community at the camp; when Tomi's father returns, bitter after two years of mistreatment, their world is upended once again. Dallas (The Quilt Story) takes an honest look at a painful chapter in U.S. history, forthrightly depicting the injustices faced by thousands of people of Japanese descent during WWII. Ages 9%E2%80%93up. Agent: Danielle Egan-Miller, Browne & Miller Literary Associates. (Sept.)