Love in the Library

Love in the Library

Maggie Tokuda-Hall

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Set in an internment 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? Beautifully illustrated and complete with an afterword, back matter, and a photo of the real Tama and George—the author’s grandparents—Maggie Tokuda-Hall’s elegant love story for readers of all ages sheds light on a shameful chapter of American history.


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  • Jenaneter
    Dec 18, 2024
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  • herevermore
    Mar 11, 2025
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  • Apr 06, 2025
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    Thank you Libro.fm for the Educator ALC!

    This is a sweet love story centered around books that is also a meaningful introduction to the horrific history of Japanese internment camps. The text of the story itself expresses complicated, contradictory, human feelings, and Tokuda-Hall's Author's Note clarifies some of the history in a child-appropriate way. That said, I thought some of the parallels to today were a little overdone. I tend to be hesitant abut claims that every form of discrimination is part of the same mentality, and Tokuda-Hall's laundry list of marginalized people turned me off a bit. 

    This is definitely a book I would use in the classroom as part of a larger unit on this time in history, on Japanese culture, or on library stories. I would especially love to hear student responses about the complexity of feelings that the characters experience: Can you be joyful and angry at the same time? 

    Publication date: January 11, 2022

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