A story set against the backdrop of the imprisonment of Japanese and Japanese Americans during World War II finds hope in the midst of frustration, anger, and heartache. Tama lives behind barbed wire in Minidoka, where it’s brutally cold in winter and blistering in summer. She has no idea if she’ll ever be able to leave the incarceration camp. Most days are the same: “Constant questions. Constant worries. Constant fear.” Tama works in the library, where there are other constants: Books—the magic of how many worlds can fit inside the library’s four walls is something Tama calls “[m]iraculous”—and George. George comes to the library often and always has a smile for her. When she’s overwhelmed by the unfairness of what’s happened to them and too sad to smile back, George takes her hand and gives her a word for that, too: “Human.” They fall in love and marry, and their first child is born in Minidoka. “The love for the family they made was constant … To fall in love is already a gift. But to fall in love in a place like Minidoka … that was miraculous. That was humans doing what humans do best.” Set against gouache and watercolor illustrations in a subdued palette, this picture book is inspired by the story of the author’s maternal grandparents, whose photo is included with an author’s note that discusses how racism in America has also impacted other groups of people throughout U.S. history and today.    (Age 8 and older)

Set in an incarceration camp where the United States cruelly detained Japanese Americans during WWII and based on true events, this moving love story finds hope in heartbreak.

To fall in love is already a gift. But to fall in love in a place like Minidoka, a place built to make people feel like they weren’t human—that was miraculous.

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Tama is sent to live in a War Relocation Center in the desert. All Japanese Americans from the West Coast—elderly people, children, babies—now live in prison camps like Minidoka. To be who she is has become a crime, it seems, and Tama doesn’t know when or if she will ever leave. Trying not to think of the life she once had, she works in the camp’s tiny library, taking solace in pages bursting with color and light, love and fairness. And she isn’t the only one. George waits each morning by the door, his arms piled with books checked out the day before. As their friendship grows, Tama wonders: Can anyone possibly read so much? Is she the reason George comes to the library every day? Maggie Tokuda-Hall’s beautifully illustrated, elegant love story features a photo of the real Tama and George—the author’s grandparents—along with an afterword and other back matter for readers to learn more about a time in our history that continues to resonate.