Aleutian Sparrow

Pre-read:
I had no idea that this ever happened. I asked my mom and she also had no idea. The Aleutian people seem to be very noble people and this seems like a very unlikely place for someone to attack North America. I am just shocked that this event happened and no one really knows about it. I also think it is odd that when 9/11 happened, everyone said it was the first attack since pearl harbor, but its not. I think that this is something that should be taught in schools and not forgotten. I look forward to reading this book and to see what it has to offer.

After-Read:
This book has a very interesting use of language. I have never read a book that is a collection of short poems that tells one whole story. I found this very hard to read for the first 50 pages or so. However, after that point, I really started to appreciate the style. I felt that it really added to the overall gloominess of the book.
This is a very sad story. I knew that it would be sad, but I had no idea that it would involve loosing family members and moving multiple times. I found some quotes that I think show the overall feel of this story the best.
This is the about the German prisoners of war. "They are well fed, we hear. They have cots and blankets, every last one. They have room to stretch their long legs. And good sanitation and an infirmary...We are citizens of the United States, taken from our homes. We did nothing wrong, and yet we get little to eat and no doctoring, and our toilet is an open trough washing into the creek...The German prisoners and the flies think our government has devised a very good system." This mad really emotional when I read it. It is sad that we were treating our own citizens worse than people that were trying to kill us. I think we can learn a lot from this. I also think that this might be one of the reasons that our government has tried to hide this.
"...I overhear men speaking behind me. They say Aleuts are no good, they want us to move to another location...We are only trying to survive our exile, I want to say. Yet our neighbors scratch at the rash of our existence. We didn't ask to come here. The Japanese are no longer a threat. Let us leave. Let us go home." This would be a great way to show and teach racism to upper elementary students. They could see how the Aleuts were forced to go to this place, and the people there wanted them to leave. They had no say, it is just one group of people remaining in power by looking down on another race.
"In Europe care was taken to preserve the places of history. On the Aleutians holy places collapsed under the bombs, one after another, like toy buildings... Worldwide our government spends large sums of money to piece lives back together. No money is spent here. War leaves ugly scars." This is also another poem, along with many others, that really struck a nerve with me. It is so sad that our government would treat our very own citizens this way. This would also be a great tool in a classroom. You could use it to point out the horrors of war, and how the United States helped to rebuild many of the countries, except our own.
These poems, along with all of they others in this story, depict a story that few Americans know about. I know that this is a fictional story, but it based on actually events. This is defiantly a book that I will use in my classroom.