My second OBOB book from next season's list, and of course I chose a biography, right?! This is the author's story of growing up Japanese American, living with her family in Kansas. As a teenager, her parents decided that she didn't know her native language as well as she should, so they sent her, alone, to live with her grandmother in Japan for 5 months. Those months included summer, when she normally would not be in school in Kansas, but in Japan she was right back in the classroom - only now she was in Japanese school, where Japanese was the language everyone spoke, wrote and expected her to learn and know. She knew a little, of course, as her parents spoke Japanese as well as English. But Waka went from being somewhat of an outsider as an Asian American in Kansas, to being another kind of outsider as an American in Japan.
Author Brown tells a compelling story of these five months, ended with some information about some of the people we meet in the story after the book ends. Although it is an autobiography, it often reads like a fiction story. It is easy to read and keeps you turning pages. This book reminded me a bit of A Girl From Yamhill by Oregon's own Beverly Cleary in that the author's voice comes through nicely, although there were a few parts of the story that became a little slow, I thought. Overall, a nice OBOB choice for next season, and if you like books in the 921 section of the library, I think you'll like this, too! 4 paws!
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