Friday, July 19, 2024

Displacement by Kiku Hughes

 

In this time travel graphic novel a modern teenage girl finds herself transported (or “displaced”) back in time to a World War II internment camp for Japanese Americans. Kiki knows that her grandmother spent time in a camp, but knows very little about her experiences. After a few brief displacements, Kiki becomes stuck in the past, which gives her the  opportunity to observe her relatives and maybe even get to know them. She fully lives the life of one of the captive Japanese citizens, but longs to return to her mother in the present day. It can be hard to get kids interested in nonfiction books about this time period, and this story is an excellent gateway to learning about hard history and gaining some empathy for the Japanese people who were so callously displaced. I wished that she had actually gotten to know her grandmother better in the past, but that wasn’t the direction the story took. The art is perfectly suited to the story and will draw readers in. Highly recommended for grades 7-up. 

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