Customer Reviews

Early Sunday Morning: The Pearl Harbor Diary of Amber Billows, Hawaii 1941 (Dear America Series)

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is amazing.It is about a 12 year old girl moving from Washington D.C. to Oahu, Hawaii. She could not believe that she had to move again since she had move for 4 times in the last few years. Her father was a reporter, her mom is a stay-at-home mom who likes to cook, and she also had a brother which is a baseball maniac. When she arrived in Hawaii, she liked it. She met a new friend called Kame, which was a Japanese. They were really close and they liked to do stuff together. After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the police held onto Kame's father, and questioned him for a long time. People were going to the market and restore their food supplies in case of another attack. This book is a great historical fiction book that everyone will enjoy.

I really like this book. It gives detail information of how people felt after the bombing of the Pearl Harbor and how frantic they were. This book is also a great history lesson if people like to know all about the Pearl Harbor , and how the United States got involved in the World War II.

My favorite part of the book is when Amber's friend came to her house in D.C. and told her that she will be her best friend ever. I think that was really sweet and it is a pleasure to have a true friend like that. I think this book is the best Dear America book I have ever read.

I had very high expectations for Barry Denenberg's latest addition to the Dear America series and was slightly disappointed with Early Sunday Morning. Maybe it was due to the fact that the Pearl Harbor craze had died down a couple of months ago, and wasn't as hot as it was in May with the movie, and numerous other books. One of the drawbacks was it being rather short, at times I felt some parts of the novel lacking details, ect. And obviously not giving anything away, the very end was so vague. But overall I liked the characters and the story as a whole a lot.
The novel starts out in October of 1941 in Washington D.C. Her father is a newspaperman, so her family is always moving around and Amber resents the fact that she doesn't ever get to stay in one place, and having to meet new friends. When her father is re-located to Pearl Harbor, she, along with the rest of her family, is shocked, but they go. Amber grows to love the lush tropical paradise. But when that infamous day comes, Amber's life changes forever.
I read Early Sunday Morning two days before our own infamous day in the 21st century, and recommend this to old and young alike, especially with what our country is going through now and what it went through 60 years ago.

Overall this was a good book. It was well written, I liked the character of Amber, and I am interested in Pearl Harbor. I just wish it had been longer. The story moved too fast, and the epilogue really needed more detail. I'd still reccomend the book, though. It did seem to have been written in a hurry, though...

This book is really good. It's about a girl named Amber Billows who moves to Hawaii with her family. She makes friends and has fun, but everything is interrupted when Japanese airplanes attack Pearl Harbor.
This book could have been so much better, but I still love it anyway, don't ask me why. I liked how the author made it seem how you were right there, and went into detail about stuff. My only complaint is that it could have been longer.

My grandma got me this book as a sort of early Hanukah present, along with another Dear America book. I must say, this book royally stank.
The first fault is the print is so big, it's really only about a quarter as long as the other Dear America books. It was too short to be very enjoyable, and it introduces characters, giving very little information about them. As for Amber's brother, Andy . . . I wasn't sure if he was eight or sixteen until near the end of the book. And it was just too obvious the reason that the dance-thing was on December 7. I think BArry Denenberg can do a lot better, e.g., My Face to the Wind, which was one of my favorites.
Also, this book is way too sad. If oyu don't like sad endings, DON'T read this book

Amber Billows and her family follow their father wherever he goes, be it Washington D.C.,Boston, San Francisco or...Hawaii. Amber hates moving- just for once, she wants to start school in September, like everyone else. However, her father is a reporter, and he has to go where he's sent, so the whole family pack up their home in Washington and head for Hawaii.
Amber begins to adapt to life in Hawaii, but soon, something terrible happens, so unexpected that it seems like nothing in this tenjiku, (heavenly place) will ever be the same again...

I read this book all in one sitting, and after I finsihed it, I wasn't very impressed. However, as I review it a year later, I've decided that I do think its a good book. It is very short, which is my only real complaint.
I was especially interested in how it talked about the predudice against the Japanese residents of Oahu after the bombing, something which, when I first read the book, I'd heard very little about. I also liked how Amber was new to the island, which gave the story a bit more plot, such as a new house, new friends and a new life, as opposed to someone who was living on the island and described the events, therefore just making it a purely "Pearl Harbor book".

Overall, I feel that while I initially thought it to be boring and short, I now am glad to own Early Sunday Morning, because I think its well written and has a solid plot to be linked with the Pearl Harbor catastophe.

This book talks about Amber Billows, a girl who moved from Washington D.C to Hawaii just before Dec. 7 and Pearl Harbor. Her mom thought that it would be good for Amber's older brother has has Asthma. But Amber's family is always moving from one place to another because of her Dad's job. Also, Amber's mom is expecting a baby that would be due around May.
Amber gives lots of details about Pearl Harbor and Hawaii. But on Dec.7 she said she could hardly write because of the shock she was in. She tells how her family painted their windows black and of the Bomb Shelter they had in their living room. This book is a very interesting book with a lot of details.

Early Sunday Morning was a great book. I'm not a really a big reader of Barry Denenburg but this was differant. I liked the way he captured te tuth about Pearl Harbor but also captured ow it affected the lives of one family, the Billows. The story is a five star book and has a five star author. You should read Early Sunday Morning if you like great books and if you want to read a little bit about Pearl Harbor.

Even though I am not a huge fan of Barry Denenburg's writings, this is a very good book. The story of Pearl Harbor is one that will be remembered forever. I had been wondering if they would make a Dear America about it. Anyway, this a very interesting book, especially for those,like myself, who are very interested in World War II

Early Sunday Morning (Pearl Harbor) / 0-439-32874-8

Clocking in at approximately 130 pages and fairly large print, "Early Sunday Morning" can be finished by late Sunday afternoon. In a matter of a few short pages, Amber's journalist family is swept protesting to their new assignment in Hawaii, followed by a few quick jotted notes about Hawaii history and culture, mostly gleaned from Amber's encyclopedia. More lavish treatment is given to various dinner parties where American officers expound foolishly on the unlikelihood of a Japanese attack, all of which is very interesting, but is not explored very deeply.

The actual attack, when it occurs, is handled well. Amber and her brother construct a pillow fort in the living room - a meaningless gesture, she admits, but one which makes her feel slightly safer - and huddle together, convinced that they will die at any moment. This is a nice touch and a decent reminder to those of us who tend to see the event as "merely" affecting the ships attacked - the surrounding population had no way of knowing how confined the attack would or would not eventually be. Afterward, measures are taken: like the limiting of radio and night lights to prevent 'signaling' the Japanese troops. Amber's family builds a bomb shelter, albeit a poorly constructed one, and procure several poorly fitted gas masks.

Just as things are starting to get interesting, however, the book grinds to a sudden halt. The book had begun, briefly, to hint at the anti-Japanese sentiment that caused so many innocent Japanese-Americans to be rounded up into illegal camps and stripped of their possessions and belongings, but this dead-ends unsatisfactorily. Frustratingly, the author seems to hint that the one arrested person in the novel most definitely had pro-Japan sentiments, and therefore probably really was a collaborator.

This book is too short and too flimsy an approach to the subject matter to warrant the high price that the hardcover is asking. My recommendation is to skip "Early Sunday Morning" and buy "My Secret War" instead - another Dear America book that covers World War II and Pearl Harbor, but covers it in far more detail and integrity.

~ Ana Mardoll