Fish for Jimmy: Inspired by One Family's Experience in a Japanese American Internment Camp - Hardcover

Yamasaki, Katie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0823423751 ISBN 13: 9780823423750

Publisher: Holiday House, 2013

Synopsis

For two boys in a Japanese American family, everything changed when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States went to war.
With the family forced to leave their home and go to an internment camp, Jimmy loses his appetite. Older brother Taro takes matters into his own hands and, night after night, sneaks out of the camp and catches fresh fish for Jimmy to help make him strong again.

This affecting tale of courage and love is an adaptation of the author's true family story, and includes a letter to readers with more information about the historical background and inspiration.

About this title

About the Author:

Katie Yamasaki is a muralist, author, and teacher. When she was growing up, the World War II internment of 110,000 Japanese and Japanese American citizens was never discussed in school—even though most of Katie's Japanese family was interned.  Inspired by her family's history, she wrote Fish for Jimmy to honor their bravery and the memory of those like them. Based in Brooklyn, New York, she travels widely across the world to paint in and work with diverse communities.  She is passionate about art as dialogue and storytelling.

From School Library Journal:

Gr 1-3-Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Taro's father is taken away for questioning by the FBI, and Taro, his younger brother, and their mother are transported to an internment camp. Jimmy refuses to eat and becomes withdrawn and listless. Taro finds a way to slip outside the camp fences to obtain fresh fish to entice his brother to eat. While the story is moving, it is the acrylic illustrations that are exceptional. The style has a primitive quality, with expressive facial details and body positioning. Yamasaki combines representational and abstract elements in her images. Children will be intrigued immediately by the cover. Taro is picking up fish that have small human figures sleeping on them. Readers soon discover that the figure is Jimmy. By combining what the characters are doing with what they are thinking, the illustrations invite viewers into a deeper level of connection with the story. Space and scale also are used imaginatively. The scene in which Taro leaves the camp is shown as a spread. His movement is demonstrated by four small images of him running, avoiding spotlights and guards. A larger Taro cutting a hole in the fence is the focal point of the painting. Another scene in which Taro is considering how to help Jimmy provides the visual clue of "fish" in an intriguing manner. Although the story is appropriate for a slightly younger audience than Ken Mochizuki's Baseball Saved Us (Lee & Low, 1993) and Eve Bunting's So Far from the Sea (Clarion, 1998), the sophisticated visual images have cross-generational appeal. This book would be appreciated by young children, middle school students learning more about internment camps, and anyone interested in how art can explore emotion.-Lucinda Snyder Whitehurst, St. Christopher's School, Richmond, VAα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

About this edition

• Publisher: Holiday House
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0823423751
• ISBN 13: 9780823423750
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 32