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3.5***
Henry Lee, a 12-year-old Chinese American, has only one friend at Rainier elementary school in 1942 Seattle. She is his fellow cafeteria worker/scholarship student – Keiko Okabe – a second-generation Japanese American. The events of World War II will greatly affect these two young people, on the cusp between childhood friendship and teenage love. Fast forward to 1986 Seattle, where Henry has recently lost his wife, Ethel, to cancer. When the Panama Hotel’s new owner begins renovations to r ...more
Henry Lee, a 12-year-old Chinese American, has only one friend at Rainier elementary school in 1942 Seattle. She is his fellow cafeteria worker/scholarship student – Keiko Okabe – a second-generation Japanese American. The events of World War II will greatly affect these two young people, on the cusp between childhood friendship and teenage love. Fast forward to 1986 Seattle, where Henry has recently lost his wife, Ethel, to cancer. When the Panama Hotel’s new owner begins renovations to r ...more
This is more a 3.5, but since Goodreads doesn't allow 1/2 stars and 3 stars feels too low for such a good book. Back in 2012, I tried reading this and couldn't get into it, but I recently saw it was available as an audiobook on Overdrive and thought I'd try it again in this format. I really enjoyed the story about 2 6th graders in the early part of WWII, Henry, who is Chinese and Keiko, who is Japanese and their friendship during the time before and during the Japanese internment that occurred i
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In 1942 twelve year old Henry Lee is bewildered by the changes sweeping across the world, the country and even his own neighborhood. The son of Cantonese-speaking Chinese immigrants, Henry has received a scholarship to a prominent private school, where he is the only non-white student until Keiko Okabe, a beautiful young Japanese-American girl, joins his class.
The two form a friendship, bonding over shared work hours in the school cafeteria and a love of music and adventure. Henry knows that his ...more
The two form a friendship, bonding over shared work hours in the school cafeteria and a love of music and adventure. Henry knows that his ...more
I really enjoyed this book. I love historical fiction, but WWII was not a time period I had really spent much time with in the past. This was a great first book to try out for that era. The details were fantastic (except for one mistake near the beginning of the book about CDs, but I let that one go - even though it bugged me for a few pages). I live just a few hours from the Japanese internment camp spoken about in the novel so I found that even more interesting. The writing is beautiful and th
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This was the best book I've read in a long time. Emotional, honest, happy, heartbreakingly sad, educational, beautifully written, wonderfully developed characters - it had it all. It'a a story of complex family relationships, first love, war, Japanese internment camps, prejudice and resolution. The main characters, Henry and Keiko, were beautifully written and believable, and the secondary characters were equally well written. This is one of those books you just don't want to see end.
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May 11, 2009
Sarah
marked it as to-read
Sep 30, 2010
Lisa
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Oct 30, 2012
Connie N.
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Apr 09, 2013
Phyllis
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Jun 22, 2013
Jenny Gudgen Spradlin
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Feb 14, 2015
Jody
marked it as tbr-non-list-books
Oct 18, 2017
Mary-Megan
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Oct 05, 2018
Brindi Michele
marked it as to-read
Sep 12, 2024
Cecilia
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