Best Friends Forever: A World War II Scrapbook in Mock Newbery 2026

Jul 07, 2011 Carmine rated it it was ok

Shelves: historical-fiction, juvenile-fiction, realistic-fiction, friendship, pacific-northwest, islands, japanese-american-incarceration-ww2, world-war-2

A good introduction to the Japanese American internment for middle graders unfamiliar with the topic. The scrapbook style format is engaging- a series of letters back and forth, newspaper clippings, etc. between two best friends, Japanese-American Dottie and German-American Louise. The writing is a bit clunky and contrived at times which I find often to be the case when reading faux diaries or letters. There is often something a bit off about the voice.
As for setting the story on Bainbridge feel A good introduction to the Japanese American internment for middle graders unfamiliar with the topic. The scrapbook style format is engaging- a series of letters back and forth, newspaper clippings, etc. between two best friends, Japanese-American Dottie and German-American Louise. The writing is a bit clunky and contrived at times which I find often to be the case when reading faux diaries or letters. There is often something a bit off about the voice.
As for setting the story on Bainbridge feels like the author just looked at a map and said 'Bainbridge Island....that sounds good.' For people who do live here it definitely feels like the author has never been here and didn't do much research into local history despite the included bibliography and reference. Too much has been unnecessarily fictionalized. I am fine with dropping fictional characters into history to tell a story, but feel that one should try to stick as close as one can to actual documented events- like sending the Japanese Americans from Bainbridge to Camp Harmony instead of Manzanar. I am going to theorize that the author probably happened to find a better online exhibit about Camp Harmony. It just felt a little lazy to me. If you want to use Camp Harmony, fine, but why bother to specify the protagonists are from Bainbridge and then write the rest of the book like they aren't. Our local history museum has plenty of information and documentation if an author really wants to use Bainbridge as a setting. There is better fiction available about internment. The strength of this book is that it makes it accessible to a slightly younger audience than other available material.

For a better fictionalized account of Japanese interment through the letters of two BFFs read "The Fences Between Us" by Kirby Larson.

For a better scrapbook style book about interment based on a true account read "Dear Miss Breed: True Stories of the Japanese American Incarceration During World War II and a Librarian Who Made a Difference."

For an authentic account of internment from the perspective of a young Japanese American girl, read 'Farewell to Manzanar' by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and "Desert Exile: Uprooting of a Japanese American Family" by Yoshiko Uchida.
And for better fictionalized accounts read Uchida's 'Journey to Topaz' and 'Journey Home.'

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Aug 31, 2010 Kris Springer rated it really liked it

A book that does a good job introducing kids (probably girls, for the most part) to WW2 and the interment camps that the gov't put Japanese Americans in. Sweet story w/ likeable heroines and neat pictures & momentos from the 1940s. Young readers will enjoy. ...more

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Mar 11, 2016 Dolores rated it really liked it

This book takes an appealing story and marries it with a visually appealing package. The result is a terrific book. I really enjoyed this story and I loved the presentation.

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