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Amy Lee-Tai’s mother and family were forced by the federal government to relocate to an internment camp in 1942. Lee-Tai has published a children’s book inspired by her family’s experience. A Place Where Sunflowers Grow is published by Children’s Book Press.
This piece was originally commissioned to air on WVTF Public Radio’s Studio Virginia program. CPN also receives support from the Charlottesville Daily Progress.
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Very good peice on a very bold subject.
“I think that children need to be exposed to some of the darker parts of American history”
Very true words. The sugar coating of our actions hides their effects. This is also a timely subject, with the questioning of the no-warrent wire taps – which is luckly not as gross of a violation of citizens rights as the internment camps were.
Sometimes well meaning people make grave errors – we should learn from those mistakes, not hide them.
[...] Keeping watch over every millimetre of growth has been a good time to read A Place Where Sunflowers Grow, this year’s winner of the Jane Addam’s Book Award for Best Picture Book. It is a beautiful and poignant story about one little American girl’s experience of adjusting to being interned during the Second World War because of her Japanese heritage; the character, Mari, is based on author Amy Lee-Tai’s own mother. You can hear Amy reading extracts from the book and talking about it here. [...]
[...] younger children, such books as A Place Where Sunflowers Grow by Amy Lee-Tai and illustrated by Felicia Hoshino; Peacebound Trains by Haemi Balgassi; and The Orphans of Normandy [...]