The Bracelet [Hardcover]

Yoshiko Uchida (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 6 and up | Grade Level: 1 and up

In 1942 America, seven-year-old Emi and her Japanese-American family are forced to leave their home, a situation that becomes even more devastating when she loses a precious gold bracelet, a gift from her best friend.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The haunting immediacy of this moving tale may derive from its roots in Uchida's ( A Jar of Dreams ; The Best Bad Thing ) own childhood experiences--the author was interned in camps for Japanese Americans during WW II. Originally published as a short story, the book opens as Emi, her mother and sister prepare to leave their California home for a new residence: a racetrack that has been turned into a prison camp. Emi's best friend brings her a bracelet as a parting gift. Though Emi vows she will never take it off, the gold chain slips off her wrist as the girl helps clean out the filthy, abandoned stable that will serve as the family's "apartment." After searching for it in vain, Emi eventually realizes that she does not need the bracelet to remember her friend, just as she does not need a photo to remember her father (who has been sent to a prisoner-of-war camp because he worked for a Japanese company); in her mother's words, such important parts of our lives "we carry in our hearts and take with us no matter where we are sent." Yardley's ( The Red Ball ) hushed, realistic paintings add to the poignancy of Uchida's narrative, and help to underscore the absurdity and injustice suffered by Japanese American families such as Emi's. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 2-5-It is 1942, and seven-year-old Emi is being sent from her home in Berkeley, California, to an internment camp with her mother and older sister. Her father was arrested earlier and incarcerated in a camp in Montana. Temporarily herded into stables at a race track with other Japanese-American families, Emi realizes that she has lost the bracelet that her best friend, Laurie Madison, gave her as a parting keepsake. At first desolate, she soon realizes that she does not need the token after all, as she will always carry Laurie in her heart and mind. Uchida employs a simple, descriptive style, allowing the child's feelings to give punch to this vignette without becoming sentimental. An afterword gives brief, dignified historical context to the story. Yardley's watercolor illustrations both match and amplify the text at every point, evincing the greatest sensitivity to the depiction of character and to historical accuracy. This deceptively simple picture book will find a ready readership and prove indispensable for introducing this dark episode in American history.
John Philbrook, San Francisco Public Library
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 6 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Philomel (October 14, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039922503x
• ISBN-13: 978-0399225031
• ASIN: 039922503X
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 8.7 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #279,912 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars an importance lesson in memory, April 21, 2001

By 

Larry Mark "editor of MyJewishBooks.com" (nyc) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Bracelet (Paperback)

In the first illustration we see two typically Californian homes with cars in their driveways. One has a "For Sale" sign on its front steps. Emi, a second grader, sits and waits. Her father has been sent to a prison camp in Montana, and soon the FBI will take her, her sister, and her mother to a detention center and then to a detention camp in Utah. Emi and her family are Japanese Americans in California. It is 1942, and the United States is at war with Japan. Emi and 120,000 other Japanese Americans (80,000 of them citizens) were sent to detention centers due to their ethnic heritage by the U.S. government; their rights were abrogated. There is a knock at the door. Is it the FBI? No, it's her friend and neighbor Laurie. She gives Emi a gift, a bracelet, with which to remember her by. They hug. Emi and her family, allowed just a couple of suitcases, are sent with other from San Francisco to a racetrack which has been converted to a detention center. They see guards with guns and bayonets, and as they pass a boarded up grocery store, we see a sign in the drawing, saying that the store owners are "loyal Americans." When Emi loses the bracelet after arriving at the detention center, she learns that a person can remember people and families in the absence of physical items and personal effects. An afterword explains the historical events and the redress made by the US Federal government under Presidents Ford and Carter. Yoshiko is also the author of The Invisible Thread, her account of a childhood in detention.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Heartfelt story with universal appeal, May 26, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Bracelet (Hardcover)

Yoshiko Uchida writes of her experiences growing up during World War II living in California. Many of her works deal with the evacuation of Japanese Americans to internment camps away from the coastal areas. Although "The Bracelet" deals with the internment experience, the story has universal appeal because the theme is friendship. The young girl in the story is evacuated to a camp. Upon leaving, her best friend, who is Caucasian, gives her a bracelet. The young Japanese American girl loses this bracelet somewhere along her journey--it is not shown where. At the end of the story, the young girl realizes that you don't have to have material possessions to remember and maintain a friendship. True friendships transcend material belongings. The illustrations are especially nice and in full color throughout.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Book for the Classroom, December 7, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Bracelet (Paperback)

This book is a must for any classroom library. The children in my classroom had fantastic and thoughtful things to say about this book, in third grade! This book deals with tough subjects and still has a beautiful moral.