Naomi's Road - Softcover

Joy Kogawa

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0195405471 ISBN 13: 9780195405477

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1986

Synopsis

Based on the award-winning novel Obasan, Naomi's Road describes an often-forgotten episode in Canadian history. It tells the story of Naomi Nakane -- a little girl with "black hair and lovely Japanese eyes and a face like a valentine" -- and her Japanese-Canadian family during the 1940s, when Canada was at war with Japan.
Naomi, her older brother Stephen, and their aunt are sent to an internment camp deep in the interior of British Columbia and then to a farm in Alberta. Through her eyes we see the effects of war as Naomi grows up in a world of hardship and prejudice. Yet throughout, she retains her essential hope and dignity.
"The book sings. It is a lyrical and intensely moving account." -- The Toronto Globe and Mail
"This is an important, painful story told with grace and sensitivity and lacking the easy sentimentality that would have dulled its polish. Great stuff." -- The Toronto Sun

About this title

About the Author:

Joy Kogawa is the author of Obasan and four books of poems. Born in Vancouver, she now lives in Toronto. In Naomi's Road Joy Kogawa recalls the years of dislocation her own family suffered during the Second World War.
Matt Gould is an artist who lives on a horse farm in Alberta.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 4-6 This fictionalized work is drawn from Kogawa's adult book, Obasan (Godine, 1982). Naomi, the narrator of the story, relates her memories as a Japanese-Canadian child during World War II. After Pearl Harbor, five-year-old Naomi and her brother Steven are taken first to an internment camp and then to a farm in Alberta. The family is reunited after the war, when they endure new hardships, but Naomi now is able to see the world without bitterness or rancor. This gentle story is told in lyrical language and is similar to Shizuye Takashima's A Child in Prison Camp (Tundra, 1971), as both are quiet statements of a family's struggle to overcome a brutal and painful time in their lives. Kogawa's book is on an easier reading level than Sheila Garrigue's The Eternal Spring of Mr. Ito (Bradbury, 1985), which deals with the internment of an elderly man and his family, but both are suitable for the same age level. Gould's ink illustrations lack the sensitivity of the text. Children would probably not read this book on their own, so it would be best read aloud to a class studying this period of history. Lorraine Douglas, Winnipeg Public Library, Manitoba, Canada
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1986
• ISBN 10: 0195405471
• ISBN 13: 9780195405477
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 88
• Illustrator: Matt Gould