Highlighted the many supplementary materials included in the book and on the publisher's website. Terry Hong of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center's Reviewers praised Piper's 'convincing narration' and believable voice and the integration of historical detail into the narrative. , who was forced to leave her beloved dog behind when she and her family are forcibly removed. Larson later wrote a second book with the incarceration as its backdrop, , the principal of Bailey Gatzert Elementary School, is also portrayed in the novel. , the real life pastor of Seattle Japanese Baptist Church whose story roughly parallels Rev. Between the Japanese American elements of the story, Piper writes of a first boyfriend, girl friends at school, and older brothers, both Hank and Jim, Betty's older brother.Īuthor Kirby Larson, a Seattle native, was inspired in part to write the book by the story of Rev. Resentful at times that her father seems to care more about the incarcerated Japanese Americans than his own family, she is later shocked when her father decides to move to Idaho to minister to his congregation incarcerated at We see the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans through Piper's eyes, as she makes frequent visits to Piper is confused, on the one hand, supporting security measures aimed at Japanese Americans, but knowing that people like the Haradas and Satos are just as American as she. Tensions rise in the community and at school, where some of Piper's friends express anti-Japanese feelings. Harada and the father of Piper's friend, Betty Sato. Davis goes to the aid of several families whose husbands/fathers have been arrested by the FBI, including Mr.

7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor is doubly shocking for the Davis family: beyond the surprise of the attack itself, they know that Hank had been stationed there, on the On weekends, she helps her father with church Sunday schools. The thirteen-year-old Piper, an avid photographer, has a best friend, Trixie, and a crush on a classmate Bud Greene. As the story begins, Piper's brother Hank has just enlisted in the navy, while her sister, Margie, is a college student. Piper's mother had died when she was a baby, so she had been raised in part by a governess, Mrs. Emery Davis, the pastor of the Seattle Japanese Baptist Church. Piper Davis is the youngest daughter of Rev. Series, all of which are written in the form of diaries by young women/girls from various key moments in U.S. Novel for elementary and middle schoolers about a young white teenage girl's experience of World War II including the Japanese American removal and incarceration told in the form of a diary. Title:The Fences Between Us: The Diary of Piper Davis

The Fences Between Us by Kirby Larson