From Publishers Weekly
While the title of this first novel might suggest otherwise, the substance of Hertenstein's story is fairly grimAan American teenager's experience in internment camps in the Philippines during WWII. "How would you like to go to paradise?" asks Louise Keller's father, a Baptist minister who has accepted a position as a missionary on the small island of Panay. Fourteen-year-old Louise, a writer of poetry who chafes at small-town life, is eager for the change. But the new experiences Louise has dreamed of soon turn nightmarish: when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, the war, which had seemed so far away, rapidly threatens their island existence. Separated from her father, burdened with her seriously depressed mother, Louise first joins the missionaries in a makeshift camp in the jungle to hide from the invading Japanese, but they are soon captured and sent to internment camps. Louise's narration rarely sounds like a teenager's, and the prose feels overwritten in spots. And by covering such a large swath of time and introducing so many secondary characters, Hertenstein sacrifices depth for breadth; the few superficial moments of character development she grants Louise (the discovery of her grandmother's suicide; her revelation that the Japanese are human, too) feel unconnected and unconvincing. But while the story is not especially moving, it has value as an introduction to a little-known slice of American history. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 6-9-Using firsthand accounts from survivors of Philippine internment camps, Hertenstein creates an interesting and unique story. Fourteen-year-old Jean Louise Keller, the daughter of a Baptist minister, moves from Ohio to a remote Philippine island when her father accepts a missionary position there. Following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, he is separated from his wife and daughter. As the war moves closer, Louise and her mother escape to the jungle with others from their compound but are soon discovered by the Japanese and imprisoned. In a plot that moves rapidly through the years, Louise experiences the war from a series of detention camps, encountering other missionary families, eccentric prisoners, locals from the islands, as well as Japanese and American soldiers. She finds good and evil in unexpected places, as the author explores the complicated issue of the humanity of one's enemies. When the war ends, Louise's dreams of freedom and good food become a reality. Narrated by the young girl, an aspiring poet, the story has characters that come alive in a setting that is vividly captured. While the full horror of the camps does not come through, readers will enjoy this inspirational book.
Tim Rausch, Crescent View Middle School, Sandy, UT Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
