Review to come 25th September to blog/goodreads.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

I have always been interested in stories from the WWII, so when I saw this graphic novel I just had to click that request button. I haven't read a lot of books about the internment camps for Japanese/Asian people, they aren't so easy to find. So I was eager to read this one.

In this one we meet a boy and his family. We see how the dad works as a doctor and is barely there, which I found just sad. I mean, I understand he has to work, but the kids were constantly disappointed. They went to grab their stuff to play ball and then dad would have an emergency.
Yep, a big theme in this book is baseball. They are fans of Asahi team. I loved seeing the MC play baseball, exercise with his dad (if he was there) or with his little brother (who wasn't so good). Throughout the graphic novel we will see that baseball will keep playing a big role for our MC, and I definitely like this. The MC himself was a pretty great character.

Things were looking pretty OK at the beginning... but then things quickly went south. Pearl Harbour is bombed and we see how that affects the Japanese/Asian community. People are mean to them (even friends in class). We read of internment camps. That was pretty shocking as those camps, in the beginning and maybe just at a lot of places, were little more than tents, or tons of people stuffed together. It was heartbreaking to see families broken apart, sickness spreading, worries growing.

Then it is time for our family to move to such a camp. I was at least thankful for them that the camp was houses. Not really good houses, but at least something to keep them warm/protected. The way the camp worked was interesting to read (I hope that is the right word, my mind also tries to find another word but it is not coming out). We see how our family tries to make the best of it. I was totally happy when they met up with the dad again.

The book gets interested and interested (and at times very sad or harrowing), but sadly, the ending was just way too soon in my eyes. It felt more like a chapter ending instead of a graphic novel ending. It just came out of nowhere and I feel that much more could have been said and done. Or maybe at least make it feel natural. Because of the ending I am rating this book a tad lower, from 4.5 to 4 stars.

The art was really nice, I like the style.

All in all, I am glad I have read this book. It was an interesting look in what happened in America to Japanese/Asian people. It is just heartbreaking that these people, even after the war, had to fight so hard to be accepted again. To find a home. To find jobs. To find a place to belong.

A highly emotional graphic novel for middle school audiences concerning a young baseball-loving kid in early 1940s Canada. Unfortunately for him he's trying to live his life as intended, learning to play ball and so on, when Pearl Harbour is hit, and a mass movement against the Japanese is put into motion. The neighbourhood kids declare he's a spy, and those of Japanese extraction like his family are first declared persona non grata at certain places and then put under a curfew – a curfew which doesn't sit well with his father's job of being a GP making house calls to other Japanese. And then comes the shock of the new, when they're all packed off to camps, the father to a separate work camp and the rest to an impoverished new settlement in the middle of nowhere with no amenities, communal outhouses and so on.

What we have is something expertly presented from the young lad's point of view, but never once mawkishly. It aces the feeling of estrangement when the parents argue over the father's working during curfew hours, it lightly touches on baseball as being the key thing taken from his world, and it puts a deft touch of sadness into the adults' mantra of dad being taken to "where he's needed the most". Subdued colouring and unflashy 'direction' make the visual side of the narrative perfectly on point. We close with the necessary historical context, and it seems that the Canadians just fell in line with the American anti-Japanese feeling, interning their Japanese populations just to be seen to be doing the same thing as the Yanks out of sympathy. Pearl Harbour had nothing to do with them, as far as I can tell. Still, causes schmauses, for what we're here for is the evocation of the kid's life before and during encampment, and that is so well done this has to get a top rating from me. This look at the fear the enemy within caused is a most welcome historical lesson, given in perfect fashion.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Such a beautiful and heartbreaking story about a boy's experience in a Japanese internment camp during the WII,
It's also a story about how a lot of Japanese people could cope with such an horrible life's style and injustice thanks to the Baseball.

Sandy's love for this sport helped him deal with all the difficult changes that he and his family had to endure after the Pearl Habore's attack. I loved it because it was about how much family is more important than anything else, home is always where your family remains.

A wonderful book with great illustrations, the artist's style works so well with the story, a vintage kind of style. I liked it, amazing idea.

Another part of the history where we witness again the great foolishness of the humanity which might made you angry and sad to see our narrow minds at their worst. Will it change? We keep hoping.

Stealing Home by J. Torres is the heartbreaking story of a young Canadian boy who is sent to a Japanese internment camp during WWII. Sandy Saito is a happy child, whose passion in life is baseball, specifically the Asahi team that are the pride of his Japanese Canadian community. But his idyllic life in Canada changes drastically following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour, and Sandy soon realizes that life will never be the same for his family. Separated from his father, a doctor, whose skills have taken him to where he is most needed, Sandy spends his days longing for a time when the two could bond over their shared passion for baseball.

This is such an important story in Canada's history and the details, while difficult to fathom, are clearly well-researched and presented with great understanding and sensitivity. I would recommend this book most highly.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Kids Can Press for an ARC.