Fiction: Stealing Home

Author Illustrator Publisher
J. Torres David Namisato Kids Can Press

What do you do when your home and everything you love is taken away from you?

In the 1940’s, when Canada was at war, Japanese citizens were by government decree considered as enemy aliens and stripped of their civil rights. People lost their homes, possessions, jobs, and place in the community. They were restricted from certain locations and eventually removed to remote camps.  Families were torn apart and many never recovered. Sandy Saito find his family caught in the net of racism and tries to hold onto what he loves most, baseball and his family.

Questions:

  • What would you do and how would you react if you and your family had to deal with what Sandy deal with?
  • Do you think Sandy is right in getting angry with his father?
  • What do you think about internment camps?
  • If you had to leave everything behind, what would you miss and what would you have to take with you?
  • Why do you think that the Asahi are so important to Sandy?