Monday, November 17, 2008

Pearl Harbor hits U.S.

Book_♥; Farewell to Manzanar
Author_
♥; Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston
Pages_
♥; 213

In Mrs. Forsberg's 7th Grade Gifted Language Arts class, our class book was Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, a Japanese-American. It is one of the few intricately detailed personal narratives still left in our world today. (Yes, that means it is a true story). What sparked me about reading this book was how Houston wrote the book without making us feel sorry for her. She said the story in a story-telling way. She began her book when she was age seven, the age that she was sent to a concentration camp after the famous Pearl Harbor bombing. The camp was known as Manzanar. During her years at the camp, she struggles with hardships, danger, and discrimination. Rarely did she ever experience any tremendous happenings that she treasured. Jeanne describes her and her family's adventure during their imprisonment and sometime she talks about what happened before the war. Soon, those memories fade, as she lives her life in Manzanar. Read to understand what a big influence the camp has had on Jeanne's life and how it shaped her future.

I am mainly telling the 8th & 6th graders to read this book, but 7th graders may try reading it again?? ;)

-amy !

4 comments:

Forsberg said...

I thought it was areally good book however there was one chapter that I felt she was trying to make us fell sorry. It was the one when they just got out of camp. It semmed to be the only chapter that she tried to make us fell sorry for her but other than that it was a really good book.

-nathan

Forsberg said...

Nathan,

I think the chapter you mentioned is the summary of what everyone else had to go through. Of course we feel sorry for all of the Japs who have been captured into the camps, but I still think that she was just stating a fact. Other than that, I agree that this was a very good book. I don't enjoy reading personal narratives, but this one seems to .... POP ? ;)



- amy !

Forsberg said...

I think it is cool how she got the personal accounts of others in her family because there is NO Way that Jeanne could have remembered all that stuff when she was young.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- Nathan

* I'm trying out a new mark to put before my name

Forsberg said...

Is there any thing else in the book that cherished besides the fact she didnt make you feel sorry for her? What about her text flow?
Metaphors? Anything thing that enhances the way she speaks?

-->Tracia Banuelos