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Overview
"WHAT ABOUT WHAT THEY DID TO MY FATHER?...THE JAPS KILLED HIM!"
Adam Pelko witnessed something horrible: the sinking of the USS Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor — with his father aboard. Since then, Adam and his mother and sister have moved to California, where they are trying to rebuild their lives.
But no matter where Adam goes, he can't get away from the effects of the war. His best friend, Davi, has asked for help. Davi is Japanese American, and his father has been arrested, taken to Manzanar, a Japanese internment camp.
Adam isn't sure what to do. If he goes to Manzanar and starts asking questions, he could be risking his own life. But can he simply do nothing and risk losing Davi's friendship forever? Are Davi, his father, and all the other Japanese Americans taken from their homes responsible for what happened at Pearl Harbor?
In this riveting follow-up to his acclaimed book A Boy at War, Harry Mazer explores questions of friendship and loyalty against the backdrop of World War II, a time when boys had to grow up fast.
After his father is killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor, Adam, his mother, and sister are evacuated from Hawaii to California, where he must deal with his feelings about the war, Japanese internment camps, his father, and his own identity.
Synopsis
THE JAPS KILLED HIM!"
Adam Pelko witnessed something horrible: the sinking of the USS Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor — with his father aboard. Since then, Adam and his mother and sister have moved to California, where they are trying to rebuild their lives.
But no matter where Adam goes, he can't get away from the effects of the war. His best friend, Davi, has asked for help. Davi is Japanese American, and his father has been arrested, taken to Manzanar, a Japanese internment camp.
Adam isn't sure what to do. If he goes to Manzanar and starts asking questions, he could be risking his own life. But can he simply do nothing and risk losing Davi's friendship forever? Are Davi, his father, and all the other Japanese Americans taken from their homes responsible for what happened at Pearl Harbor?
In this riveting follow-up to his acclaimed book A Boy at War, Harry Mazer explores questions of friendship and loyalty against the backdrop of World War II, a time when boys had to grow up fast.
Publishers Weekly
Adam Pelko returns in A Boy No More by Harry Mazer, a follow-up to A Boy at War. PW called the first book "a vivid account of the [Pearl Harbor] attack and subtle suggestions of the complexities of Japanese-American relations." Adam, his mother and his sister move to California, and Adam receives a letter from a friend, asking Adam to deliver a letter to an internment camp in nearby Fresno, where the friend's father has been taken. He agrees to help, despite a tide of anti-Japanese sentiment. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
Adam Pelko returns in A Boy No More by Harry Mazer, a follow-up to A Boy at War. PW called the first book "a vivid account of the [Pearl Harbor] attack and subtle suggestions of the complexities of Japanese-American relations." Adam, his mother and his sister move to California, and Adam receives a letter from a friend, asking Adam to deliver a letter to an internment camp in nearby Fresno, where the friend's father has been taken. He agrees to help, despite a tide of anti-Japanese sentiment. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.Children's Literature
In this sequel to A Boy at War, young Adam Pelko and his family are trying to put their lives back together in California after Adam's father has been killed at Pearl Harbor. Adam receives a letter from Davi, his Japanese-American friend from Hawaii, asking Adam to deliver a letter to Davi's father, who, it turns out, has been sent to the Japanese internment camp at Manzanar. Adam must struggle with his mother's anti-Japanese-American prejudice when she forbids him to help his friend, and he must decide where his true loyalties lie. While not as action-packed as A Boy at War, this book effectively presents Adam's growing maturity as he struggles with moral dilemmas. While the book stands on its own, a richer appreciation of Adam's developing character and motivations would be gained from reading the earlier book. A few elements of the plot strain credulity. For example, Davi appears almost supernaturally out of the dust at Manzanar. Secondary characters are not particularly well-developed. Adam's mother is somewhat wooden, and Davi is a rather shadowy figure. Historical notes and documents at the end of the book are interesting. The book would be useful for a curriculum studying the Japanese internment camps because Mazer clearly presents the rampant anti-Japanese furor at the time, and the harsh conditions at Manzanar. For other books on this topic, see Under the Blood-Red Sun by Graham Salisbury and Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James Houston. 2004, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, Ages 8 to 12.—Quinby Frank