Aleutian Sparrow: Before and After

Before Reading:
First of all, I was shocked that this was the first time I have heard about the attacks by the Japanese on these islands. It only happened six months afterward, and I would think the media would eat it up.
When I went to the fear-itself website the first question and answer surprised me in some ways. It asks 'Why hasn't this information been available before?' and the first couple reasons they gave made sense to me. The site stated first that the government tried to keep it a secret, which would just be one more to add to the list of things they don't tell the American public. Second the Italians and Germans kept quiet until Japanese Americans were given an apology and compensation for what had been done to them. Last was that there was 'a lack of curiosity on the part of historians, politicians, reporters, and the general public'. The lack of curiosity from pretty much everybody really confuses me. All these people are having to leave their homes... estimated numbers of them in the thousands. Thousands of people who were just looked over and forgotten while the fighting continued which nobody really knew about either. I wonder why the government wanted to keep it so hush-hush (maybe to avoid the grief from that in addition to the Japanese Internment camps in the states)?

After Reading:
It seems like Vera and the people she was with were among those thousands who were lost and forgotten by everyone. Other people were able to return to their homes while she stayed at the camp with her friends dying all around her and a mother who left her in an attempt to be free of the camp.

This book covers so many levels of bias and prejudice that we can definitely relate to the day in which we live, granted its not at all the same circumstances. If any of the children are old enough to remember the events of September 11, I think I would relate the prejudice in this book to that. Sure, the United States did not place all people of Middle-Eastern descent into internment camps... but we may as well have considering how we treated them after the attacks. Just because someone has darker skin and dresses differently doesn't mean they have a bomb strapped to themselves looking for the perfect opportunity to blow something up. Of course I would have to modify the wording of that to make it more age-appropriate for first graders.

I think children are among some of the most intuitive when it comes to recognizing injustice in society. They haven't yet lost their innocence and are more likely to develop that empathy and compassion toward others. Presenting children with various cultures including that in Aleutian Sparrow could help them to see that people most certainly have different traditions, food, dress, etc. The children could also identify with the loss and emotions expressed through the characters in this book to see that we are all inwardly similar although our situations may not be identical.

It may be a stretch but I think Vera could be compared to Bo and Prosper in The Thief Lord. Prosper especially was not wanted by his aunt so he willingly decided to leave and bring his brother Bo with him. I realize that Vera was taken away and placed somewhere she didn't want to go. What I am connecting is both character's longing for 'home' and for love. Both characters had to make do with what was provided for them (government rations & what the Thief Lord found) and what they could get for themselves. They also had family/friends who betrayed them (Vera's mother & Scipio).

Hesse does a wonderful job of imagery throughout this book. One of my favorite descriptions is found on page 26. It reads, "The sinking sun sets fire to the clouds". I am a big fan of watching the sunset, and found a picture of what Hesse might be talking about. I also really liked how she italicized certain words that were not familiar to the reader and defined them within the sentence. This made it easier to understand without just stating the word and definition. When I got to the back of the book I saw that they were also listed all on one page as a reference tool for the reader to go back and look through.