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Mo sends out bottles searching for her upstream mother, takes karate with Dale, spars with her enemy Anna Celeste (Attila), and moons over Dale’s brother Lavender. Then the summer takes a turn with the mysterious death of Jesse Tatum. When the lawmen show up, the enterprising sixth graders become free wheeling detectives, and the fun begins.
As the author Sheila Turnage grew up on a farm and currently lives on a farm with a smattering of animals, she captures a small town feel and makes you want to go to Tupelo Landing. Somehow you know it can’t happen, but oh, how fun if you could!
This book makes you smile, laugh, and wish for every young reader to become friends with Mo and her best friend Dale.
When I think of my own fourth graders and older students alike, both boys and girls will be mesmerized with Dale and “his blue eyes round and his blond hair spiking in all directions,” and Mo, who is an amateur detective, karate kid, orphan, café waitress, and “Three Times Lucky.”
Hmmm…….how is Mo “Three Times Lucky”? You will not be able to put the book down until you find out and the mysteries are solved!
Under the Blood-Red Sun
by Graham Salisbury, 1994
NY: Random House.
- Appropriate grade level: 5+
- Independent reading level: 5.8
- Rating:
- Genre: Historical fiction
Living on the mainland of the United States in the 21st century, it is hard to imagine what life might have been like for a Japanese American in Hawaii after the attacks on Pearl Harbor. However, in this story, Under the Blood-Red Sun, Graham Salisbury writes from the perspective of an eighth grade boy whose Japanese heritage changes his life drastically when Japan attacked America on December 7, 1941. This incredible story makes you second-guess everything you thought you knew and look deeper into what we often overlook.
Tomikazu, the main character, is introduced in the beginning as a boy living a normal life as a Japanese American during the 1940s. Tomi lives with his father, a fisherman; his mother, a maid; his little sister; and his crazy loyal-to-Japan grandfather. He encounters bullies, has friendships, and ultimately learns what is important in life. This book is a roller coaster of emotions, and you never know what to expect.
Most fictitious or even nonfiction accounts of people during WWII are focused on the Americans or Jewish people in Germany, but we seldom hear of the Japanese Americans and the struggles they went through, especially from a child's point of view. In this book, readers are able to look through the eyes of a boy who is Japanese, but calls America his home. The author aptly shows the struggle that Tomi experiences between keeping the honor of his Japanese heritage, while also living the life of an American.
It interested me that the author himself is from Hawaii and has written many books about WWII. This makes the book more credible because he undoubtedly has lived among and experienced the lives similar to the people he based the story on. He understands firsthand the different ethnicities of people who lived on the island of Oahu and their interactions, which makes the story so much more believable and realistic.
Reviewed by Taylor Jaudes, a senior elementary education/art education major originally from Lebanon, MO
Reviewed by Jill Lauman, a field education supervisor from SEMO, former classroom teacher, Title I teacher, and reading specialist