Nim and the War Effort - Softcover

Lee, Milly

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0374455066 ISBN 13: 9780374455064

Publisher: Square Fish, 2002

Synopsis

"Details place the affecting story in a real, not idealized, America." --Kirkus Reviews

"It's the last day of the newspaper drive and Nim, a Chinese-American girl in San Francisco during World War II, is determined to win. Her nearest rival has cheated. Undaunted, she leaves Chinatown and walks up Nob Hill after school, determined to find more scrap newspaper. Nim's sweet seriousness and ingenuity are captured in the text and in the luminous, grave illustrations." --The New York Times Book Review

"Based on the author's childhood memories, Nim's story celebrates the patriotism of Asian family members in embracing their new home and country and their efforts to maintain their cultural traditions. A fine addition." -- School Library Journal

Nim and the War Effort is a 1997 New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year.

About this title

About the Author

Milly Lee grew up in San Francisco's Chinatown. She is a retired school librarian and lives in Sonoma County, California.

Yangsook Choi grew up in Korea and holds an M.F.A. from the School of Visual Arts in New York City, where she now lives.

From Kirkus Reviews

The recycling of paper is not new, nor is racism. This book explores both in the historical context of San Francisco's Chinatown during WW II. Nim is competing in a school newspaper drive to help the war effort. In her free time she scouts out the neighborhood for more paper, red wagon in tow, and runs into her closest competitor, Garland Stephenson. He's not above stealing a pile of papers left for Nim by her aunt, taking new papers from a vendor, or ridiculing Nim by saying that the winner of the competition will be an American, and ``not some Chinese smarty-pants.'' Nim almost gets the last laugh when she discovers a motherlode of newspapers in a garage in Nob Hill, and calls the police to deliver them to her school. However, her discovery makes her late getting home, and she is reprimanded by her grandfather. Nim's close relationship and respect for her grandfather temper her pride in her success. The muted colors of the illustrations and the unhurried beginning create an intimate, if slow-moving, story. What separates this story from simple nostalgia is Lee's close recollection of details--the scarcity of newspaper during the war years, or the flag pin worn by Chinese-Americans (so they would not be identified as ``the enemy''--the Japanese). All these details place the affecting story in a real, not idealized, America. (Picture book. 6+) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Square Fish
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0374455066
• ISBN 13: 9780374455064
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 40
• Illustrator: Choi Yangsook