Where do I begin... First let me dry my tears.
1935- Alex Maki and Charlie Levy are paired up by their teachers for a class project. They are to be international pen-pals. No one is more surprised than Alex when he finds out his pen-pal is a GIRL!! Charlie, on the other hand, remains enthusiastic and convinces Alex to keep writing.
As years pass, their friendship grows. The world is changing around them. By nature of their birth, both Alex Maki and Charlie Levy will be forced to experience the hate and intolerance of war.
Alex is Japanese-American. His parents were born in Japan. Alex and his brother, Frank, were both born in America. Charlie Levy is a French Jewish girl who lives in Paris with her parents.
Through their letters, both Charlie and Alex share their feelings about the war in Europe and the frightening power of Hitler. War has come to America as well when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor.
With Japan now being an enemy, the U.S. government forces thousands and thousands of Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans to give up their jobs, homes, property, and dignity by relocating them to internment camps.
When I first learned about Japanese internment camps I could not believe it to be true. I was an adult and I had no idea of this terrible part of American history! I applaud the author for the detailed information regarding the poor treatment of Japanese Americans during the war.
Alex and his family suffered deeply during this time. Alex, through his letters to Charlie, clung tightly to his hope of a better future. His hope also included that he would meet Charlie someday.
In France, war and hatred had targeted the Jews. Hitler was on a mission to exterminate all Jews. Every day was dangerous for Charlie and her family. Charlie had many plans for a happy future, which included meeting Alex. The letters they shared were a lifeline between them and their future.
Then, letters stopped coming from Charlie Alex continued to write but eventually they all came back to him unread. Deep in his heart, he knew he needed to find Charlie, even if it meant fighting a war to do so.
I feel so lucky that I had the opportunity to read this book and experience the friendship and hope that Alex and Charlie shared. I learned so much!
My heart broke and I cried a million tears.
This book will remain in my mind forever.
This is an important book. Very much worth the read.

I really enjoyed reading this novel! It was a new take on World War II historical fiction novels that I normally read. This book’s premise is about a Japanese-American boy named Alex who lives in Washington, and occurs immediately after the bombing of Pearl Harbour. This novel shone a light on internment camps in America during World War II. I liked the format of how the novel was told in bits and pieces of letters sent between Alex and Charlie. . I thought that the pace of the novel was a bit slow to start, however Fukuda did an excellent job at describing the youthfulness between Alex and Charlie.The only reason why this book wasn’t a 5/5 was because of the hallucinations that Alex experienced. He saw Charlie in the internment camp in America when she wasn’t there.

Excellent.

For those who love reading historical fiction especially from the WWII era, I highly recommend this book. Fukuda approaches this genre very differently. This story begins with two young children. One in Bainbridge Island, Washington and the other in Paris, France. As a school assignment, these two become pen pals. Alex Maki is disheartened to learn that his pen pal, Charlie Levy, is actually a girl. But for some reason, he decides to stick to his correspondence years later, even after his school assignment no longer requires that they write.

Alex is a bit of a loner and doesn't have any friends. Charlie, in essence, becomes his only friend.

What makes this story unique is that Alex is a Japanese American. Charlie is a French Jew. They become friends right before the war. So this correspondence makes this story even more special since we know what happens when the war begins.

Alex and Charlie continue to write after the Japanese are sent to internment camps. A friend of the family delivers the letters to Charlie in Paris. Charlie's family remains in Paris longer than they should have.

When Alex's letters are returned, he still continues to write, even though there are no more letters from Charlie.

This story is about a friendship between two people that have never met but are bound to each other through these letters. It is like the quote from Jane Eyre: "I have a strange feeling with regard to you. As if I had a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly knotted to a similar string in you. And if you were to leave I'm afraid the cord of communion would snap."

There is a light between them that binds them, and Alex will do what he can to find Charlie.

I can't tell you how much my heart hurt for these two. The story is told through Alex's eyes. We see the despair around him while they are in the Japanese internment camps. We watch as members of the 442nd are killed around him as they storm Suicide Hill to save the Lost Battalion. And then we see glimpses of Auschwitz and Dachau when the American troops arrive.

Alex never gave up looking for her.

I cried at the end. I really cried. This was just wonderfully done. I really liked that he chose to link this string under the ribs of a Japanese American boy and a French Jewish girl, a symbol of two groups that were victimized by the war. That is what made this story even more special.

I read many stories about WW11, but have never read one involving pen pals - Alex and Charlie. A wonderful story which was very well written. It was an emotional story and one that i will not forget any time soon. Recommend. I hope to read more by books by Andrew Fukuda.

My thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers for my copy. This is my honest review, which i have voluntarily given.

This a story of friendship and resilience. The story of two teenagers trapped in the midst of WWII. Charlie, who is Jewish and lives in Paris and Alex, who is Japanese American living in America in midst of Pearl Harbor being attacked. The story of two teens who are forced to become pen pals and their struggles to survive the war despite being in two different parts of the world. I love WWII books and this one certainly did not disappoint. I loved how we can personally feel and understand everything Alex experiences being a Japanese in America, how they were wrongly persecuted and mistreated. There aren’t a lot of YA books that address what it was really like for Nisei’s living in the US at that time. This is the perfect YA historial fiction book and I would totally recommend it. Definitely a must read!!! Thank you so much NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for the ARC.

Amazing story of a friendship born through years of being pen pals. Alex is Japanese and lives on Bainbridge Island near Seattle. Charlie lives in Paris and is Jewish.

As teens, they are both thrown into miserable circumstances due to WWII. Yet, a connection remains strong between them.

Definitely a compelling read. I would add it to my list of recommended novels when studying American History.

I don’t usually read WW2 books but this one caught my attention and had to read it.
I can only tell you that it’s a great book with a beautiful story and heartbreaking at the same time.
Forced to become pen pals, a lifetime friendship develops between Alex and Charlie who is girl mischief to Alex’s dismay.
I loved how the author tells the story about what went before and after the Pearl Harbour incident and how we get a bit of insight into people’s lives having to go through those horrible situations.

Brilliant novel, I think its the perfect addition to YA historical fiction. Not much is written about minority perspectives during the war, and I loved that this book addressed those issues.

I absolutely loved this book. I've read others from this author so I went in to this thinking that I knew what level of enjoyment and engagement to expect. Instead, I was blown away. You can tell that this was a passion project from the author. At the end of the book he explains how it came into being and it made my enjoyment of the book increase. The research that went into it was extensive, as historical fiction should be, but it wasn't thrown in there just to tell stories. Each part built upon another and I was just drawn into it very quickly and thoroughly. Though I felt the ending was unsatisfactory, it was perfect and deeply realistic. I wouldn't have written it differently and definitely couldn't have written it more beautifully than Mr. Fukuda did. If you get time, get this book and love it like I did.

I appreciate getting the chance for a copy through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I won't review review this since it's already been done better by now, but I'll put a couple of notes:

RA note: this is a lovely, thoughtful stepping stone between middle grade books like Dust of Eden and before Code Name Verity or Between Shades of Gray.

Also, publishers and editors, can we please have more books about Japanese internment/detention camps and unlawful American detention? Immediately?

4.5 Stars. I just adored everything about this book! A WWII novel between 2 pen pals, coming of age, with a touch of magical realism is the best way I could describe it. The relationship between Alex and Charlie was so sweet and honest and just heart wrenching. Both of them having to experience their countries turning their back on them, but handling it in different ways, was very eye opening. I learned a lot from this book about the Japanese internment camps as well as the Japanese American soldiers, that I did not know before. Thank you to Netgallery and MacMillan Tor/Forge for the ARC.

I really enjoyed this book. The author gives us two characters that are pen pals from Paris and Washington State. Charlie is a young Jewish girl, Alex a Japanese-American. As the story unfolds during WWII, we see how their lives change drastically and sometimes in shockingly similar ways. I have read books about the Japanese internment camps before. This one really painted a painful picture about what the US did to those who should not have been persecuted. While we mostly follow Alex, I feel the author did a great job at showing the friendship, the struggles each went through, and how they were able to keep hope alive for each other during this awful time.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC for my honest review.

In school many of us were probably matched up with a pen pal, usually from a different country, in an effort to get to know another culture better. I think the class I was in were matched up with kids from Indonesia (being one of our closest neighbours here in Australia), and I don’t think I got more than one letter back – no surprises there, as my Indonesian was woeful (they had to write to us in English, we had to write to them in Indonesian).

In this book we have a young girl, Charlie Lévy of Paris who, because of her name is accidentally matched up with a boy, Alex Maki from Washington. By the time the error is realised there are no free students left, so they just have to live with it. We start the book with an excited Charlie and a rather rude Alex, annoyed he has to write letters to a girl. Thankfully, we quickly jump ahead a few years to find they’ve become fast friends and have been writing back and forth constantly.

As the book proceeds we see the children start to tell each other of the changes that are happening in their cities as war begins to brew. Charlie is French-Jewish, and Alex is Japanese-American… and when the bombing of Pearl Harbour occurs all Japanese people (even if they were born in America and it’s the only home they know) are round up and shifted to rural camps where they’re fed slop, beaten, and basically blamed for the wrongs another country has inflicted upon America. Their fathers were taken before they’re shipped out, and are taken to another camp entirely, so soon it’s just Alex, his older brother Frank, and their mother who doesn’t know how to cope without her husband. And all Alex has is his friend on the other side of the world who has her own troubles, as her family are told by friends that they need to leave France… ordered to wear yellow stars, and then eventually Charlie’s letters stop altogether.

This book read so real I honestly thought that perhaps Alex Maki was the author’s father or some other relation, who’d passed on the story to Andrew Fukuda. It captured not only the overtly racist things that occur but also the small things that mount up; things you’d only notice as someone who’s experienced this for themselves. The brutality that we see Alex and his peers endure is barbaric – as was everything in that time of war, surely, however I’d never heard that Japanese-American citizens were rounded up and treated this way. It’s horrific.

One of the stronger plots in this book is the bond between Alex and his older brother Frank. They experience life as polar opposites; in school Frank was a sports champion while Alex could barely say a few words to another student. Then, in the camp, Frank is angry and making his anger known whereas Alex tries to do what the American want of him, in hopes it will help their father’s case to get moved into their camp.

And then… Alex enlists in the army. There’s a segregated unit just for Japanese-American men ‘to prove their allegiance’ but Alex also hears that as a personal thank you, those who sign up will have their fathers reunited with the rest of their family. Seeing how much this is hurting his mother Alex feels he has to do it, if it means his father will be reunited with his mother. And hearing this, Frank is pissed, because America just wants to use the Japanese-Americans as cannon fodder and how can Alex do such a thing after how they’ve been treated so unfairly?

Witnessing Alex in the army and fighting in the war is heartbreaking. As Fukuda reveals to the reader how the camps in America were a part of history that really happened, he also shows how the magnificent displays of courage and sheer determination by the segregated Japanese-American troops were erased from the history books and every success was made to sound like it was achieved by ‘true Americans’. If we think the book has been tough and heartbreaking to read so far, the horrors they witness as they fight closer and closer to Hitler are even more anguished.

This is a worthy novel – there is one section towards the end where Alex meets someone pivotal that I didn’t quite find believable (in that at the start of the conversation he tries to get away from it all but then ends by saying how he always expected Alex and is glad to see him? Like, why not quiz Alex first to be sure he’s the person he says he is, and then be glad to see him? It left me feeling disbelief) but other than that, this was a decent read that was hard to put down, I’m glad I requested it to review, glad I’ve read it, and will suggest it on to friends when they’re looking for heartbreaking decent historical fiction.

Thanks to Macmillan and Netgalley for the advance Kindle copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 for this 1.7.20 release. Alex Maki, a Japanese American in Washington, and Charlie Levy, a Jewish girl from Paris, become pen pals when they are ten years old. They keep up communication into their teen years. When Alex’s family is taken into an internment camp, Charlie is fleeing for her life from the Nazis. Alex gets the chance to enlist in the war, and sets out with the hope of finding Charlie overseas. This story shows an important part of history, with well-developed characters that truly bring it to life. This is one of the best historical fiction stories I have read this year. Recommended for grades 8+.

This novel was amazing. So much so that its midnight and I am frantically tapping out this review in the dark in a corner of my bedroom so as to not wake up the other inhabitants of my house - thank you to whoever invented backlit and quiet keyboards. It took me on an emotional rollercoaster that despite being extremely bumpy, I didn't want to leave until the ride was done. Even then I sat here like that cat Mittens in the meme where he has lost his toy under the fridge, staring at my ereader wondering whether I should eternally hate it or caress it gently for bringing me one of my favourite reads of the year.

The story starts out with Alex and his older brother Frank living their relatively easy life on Bainbridge Island, a settlement mostly populated by Japanese immigrants and the Nisei children. Alex has a pen pal in Paris named Charlie with whom he as been corresponding on a regular basis despite his initial disgust at finding out Charlie is in fact a she. Life is good until the bombing of Pearl Harbour, the catastrophic event that set into motion the segregation and evacuation of all Japanese/Japanese-American occupants to internment camps across the country. Meanwhile Charlie, being Jewish and living in Paris during the German occupation is attempting to avoid detection and removal to an internment camp in Europe simply for existing.

Being an Australian and despite this tale being mostly fiction (as confirmed in the final pages of the novel by Fukuda himself) some character were utilised that were historically accurate; I found myself undergoing an education as to the plight of the Japanese in the US during WWII. While not completely oblivious to America’s treatment of their citizens, I was not aware of the scale of these atrocities. Fukuda describes in great detail the discrimination borne by the residents of the Manzanar camp and invokes a renewed feeling of disgust with every event that unfolds. I found myself on multiple occasions needing to take mental health breaks from this gripping narrative as my heart slowly but surely shattered into a thousand pieces with each death and despicable act.

Alex and Charlie’s story is told through correspondence between the two as well as being narrated in the third person for the most part. In the beginning these letters are frequent and flippant, the children discuss the view from their window and their disdain for certain persons in their life. As the two mature so does their letters content, discussing crushes and their own friendship that crosses oceans, before finally turning to their plight in the war. Eventually the letters stop completely once the war hits its peak devastation and the third person narration takes the forefront. Honestly, at first, I thought this would become tedious but the skill with which Fukuda has intertwined this pairs fates feels effortless and extremely well thought out.

Also, I will give you a heads up. The ending was not what I predicted, and it absolutely, positively killed me. By the final chapters, I was reading this novel through tears (thanks Science for my waterproof e-reader) and was left with a distinct feeling of emptiness which I will now have to fill with something upbeat otherwise I will definitely end up in a slump. This book is so emotionally charged that I will warn anyone who takes the plunge – and you should DEFINITELY take the plunge – expect to feel deflated and emotionally raw, but in a way that provides reflection rather than internalised destruction of your soul.

So as to keep this short, what you really need to know is this. This Light Between Us will take your emotions, tear them out, stomp on them, spit on the remains, rinse and repeat. Rarely have I found a work of literature that has affected me so profoundly as Andrew Fukuda’s latest masterpiece. While starting out sweet and cute, it quickly becomes fraught with danger and rebellion, only to progress to a point where the protagonist Alex will do anything to save bring his family together and attempt to find his lost pen pal. It’s a heart wrenching masterpiece that is not only educational but also ingenious in its mixing of media.

This book starts off a little slow for me, but the author does it in order to establish the relationship between all the support characters and Alex, our main character. In order to establish the relationship between Alex and Charlie specifically, the author starts the book with a series of back and forth letters. At first, I was worried this book would just be a series of letters, but it actually jumps back and forth between letter and third person forms. It was a bit jarring at first, but you quickly get used to it.

The reader gets to read about before life before Pearl Harbor for a Japanese American family. Then gets to experience the shift society makes in the view of Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor. Curfews, the indifference, the accepted bullying that comes with it and finally, relocation.

From relocation the reader is introduced to camp life, the below standard living conditions, the hardships and lack of anything to do. It also touches on the corruption of the people in charge and how soldiers did open fire and killed several people who were peacefully protesting. The separation of fathers from their families is prominent here as Alex's father was taken before the roundup and relocation.

All of this you experience in third person, with a few letters thrown in. The letters are how you know what is happening to Charlie in Europe. She tells Alex about the unfair treatment anyone and he, in return tells her the same about his experience. This draws attention to some interesting parallels I have never really thought about.

Alex decides to sign up for the army. It's mostly because the recruitment officer promised to have his father reunited with his mother and brother. Another reason is that he hopes to accomplish the impossible task of finding Charlie, who had suddenly stopped writing him all together months ago. This is where the book finally picks up the pace, in my opinion. If you can make it here, the rest of the book will carry you to the end without issue.

Alex is shipped off to Fort Shelby where he is trained to be a soldier and the difference in the treatment of him and other nonwhite people is obvious. When Alex is deployed to Europe in a segregated unit, the 42nd regiment, he is thrown into some of the worst fighting. Alex became friends with a lot of these men from the 42nd over basic training, but most of them perish in the fighting.

Alex is one of the few survivors of his unit. He is also one of the soldiers that discovers a concentration camp and sees firsthand what the Nazis have done to anyone they view as a lesser human being. Horrified that this is probably what happened to his friend Charlie, he does look for her in earnest.
When everything is done and the war is over, Alex even makes a pit stop in Paris before going home, holding out hope that somehow Charlie survived and returned to her home. But it's here that he gets his second confirmation that Charlie is most likely dead. By some miracle her bedroom is basically untouched and Alex fully realizes just how much his friendship meant to Charlie, as her room is decorated with all the drawings he had ever sent her.

Alex returns home a war hero, but it's a bittersweet feeling for him.

Honestly, if it hadn't been for the second half of this book I probably would have only given it a two star rating because I wasn't connecting to Alex really and, therefore, I had trouble immersing myself in this book. But when Alex makes key decisions to save his Father from prison including enlisting he had my attention. It was a key moment for him, I felt. Gone was the weak, skinny, shy Alex. It was the moment he truly turned into an adult. An adult intent on trying to save everyone that he holds dear and that is what truly got my attention.

The second half of this book blows the first half out of the water and the ending the author chose completely earned him my respect. .

I loved the parallels that this book drew between Japanese Americans and Jews in Europe during WW2. It was an interesting connection, and I haven't really read any WW2 stories featuring Japanese Americans. It was a perspective I enjoyed learning more about and experiencing through this powerful story. Definitely recommend if you are looking for a differing take on WW2 novels.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for this digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

Description
From award-winning YA author Andrew Fukuda comes This Light Between Us, a powerfully affecting story of World War II about the unlikeliest of pen pals—a Japanese American boy and a French Jewish girl—as they fight to maintain hope in a time of war.

“I remember visiting Manzanar and standing in the windswept plains where over ten thousand internees were once imprisoned, their voices cut off. I remember how much I wanted to write a story that did right by them. Hopefully this book delivers.”—Andrew Fukuda

In 1935, ten-year-old Alex Maki from Bainbridge Island, Washington is disgusted when he’s forced to become pen pals with Charlie Lévy of Paris, France—a girl. He thought she was a boy. In spite of Alex’s reluctance, their letters continue to fly across the Atlantic—and along with them, the shared hopes and dreams of friendship. Until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the growing Nazi persecution of Jews force them to confront the darkest aspects of human nature.

From the desolation of an internment camp on the plains of Manzanar to the horrors of Auschwitz and the devastation of European battlefields, the only thing they can hold onto are the memories of their letters. But nothing can dispel the light between them.

Masterfully written. Great character development. I really enjoyed reading this.

I found the premise of this story fascinating, possibly because I had an overseas penpal as a kid. The pace of this book dragged on. It felt like nothing happened for the first half, and that includes the attack on Pearl Harbor. It reads more like a MG novel than a YA novel, which is fine, but it should be marketed as such. Overall, I'm left unsatisfied.

I got about 30% of the way in before DNF'ing.

I have a small contingent of teen boys at my library who love male, soldier, action, war stories. I thought this would fit that bill. But nope. Perhaps it does, later on, but when teen boys, you have to grab them in the first chapter, and The Light Between Us does not do that. It open with two ten year pen pals conversing, then jumps about four years in the future. Charlie and Alex are still pen pals, but everything is still very calm in tone and style. Alex, his brother, and his mom have just been picked up from their home on Bainbridge Island to be transferred to the internment camp at 30% of the way in. But still: calm and collected. I don't feel for them, I don't want to race through to the next page to discover if they've learned of their fates yet. This will not fly with my teen readers-- nor with many teen readers.