Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

  • Apple
  • Android
  • Windows Phone
  • Android

To get the free app, enter your email address or mobile phone number.
Download to your computer
Kindle Cloud Reader
Facebook Twitter Pinterest <Embed>
Buy New
$6.04
Qty:1
  • List Price: $9.99
  • Save: $3.95 (40%)
FREE Shipping on orders with at least $25 of books.
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Farewell to Manzanar has been added to your Cart
Want it tomorrow, April 23? Order within and choose Saturday Delivery at checkout. Details
Ship to:
Select a shipping address:
To see addresses, please
or
Please enter a valid US zip code.
or

Sorry, there was a problem.

There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Please try again.

Sorry, there was a problem.

List unavailable.
Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon
Flip to back Flip to front
Listen Playing... Paused   You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more
See all 2 images

Farewell to Manzanar Paperback – February 14, 2012

by Jeanne Houston (Author),
James D. Houston (Author)
› Visit Amazon's James D. Houston Page
Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
See search results for this author
Are you an author? Learn about Author Central
James D. Houston (Author)
4 out of 5 stars 400 customer reviews
See all 20 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions
Price
New from Used from
Kindle
"Please retry"
$6.26
— —
Hardcover
"Please retry"
$15.29
$5.40 $0.01
Paperback
"Please retry"
$6.04
$1.98 $0.15
Mass Market Paperback
"Please retry"
$6.51
$1.05 $0.01
Unforgettable teen fiction
The Last Boy and Girl in the World
Essential Maps for the Lost
The Unexpected Everything
$6.04 FREE Shipping on orders with at least $25 of books. In Stock. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Frequently Bought Together

  • Farewell to Manzanar
  • +
  • Night (Night)
Total price: $11.81
Buy the selected items together
NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE

Product Details

  • Age Range: 12 and up
  • Grade Level: 7 and up
  • Lexile Measure: 1040 (What's this?)
  • Paperback: 240 pages
  • Publisher: Ember; 1 edition (February 14, 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0307976076
  • ISBN-13: 978-0307976079
  • Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.5 x 8.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (400 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,760 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsA very important book
By Maginot on May 21, 2000
Format: Mass Market Paperback
I have been thinking about this book more and more ever since I saw the rascist, effusive film "Snow Falling on Cedars". My big gripe with that film was that it made the Japanese Americans look so weak and helpless without white people to rescue them from their predicament.
For those of you who disagreed with my review of that film, I strongly urge you to read (or re-read) "Farwell to Manzanar". This is a frank, accurate, and at times heart-breaking, true story of a Japanese family's internment in the camps. The narrative contains several different threads including:
1. The legal and economic injustice done to the author's family and thousands of other Japanese Americans.
2. The day to day life and survival requirements in the camps.
3. The difficulty of coping with generational differences within an interned Japanese-American family.
4. The difficulties and predjudices that Japanese Americans had to overcome in order to rebuild their lives after they were released.
Ms. Wakatsuki-Houston's memoir is simple and compelling. She describes her childhood experiences from the objective and mature perspective of an adult, a wife, and a mother. But despite the passage of time her narrative still conveys a great deal of pain and difficulty in coming to terms with her childhood internment at Manzanar.
The most interesting part of the book for me was how the author's family attempted to rebuild their lives after the U.S. government robbed and humiliated them. The father immediately started a farming venture whose success was only undermined by unsually adverse environmental conditions. One of the sons served in the military and then resumed the family's fishing business.Read more ›
2 Comments 165 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsPowerful story of an American family's struggle
By Michael J. Mazza HALL OF FAME on June 15, 2004
Format: Mass Market Paperback
"Farewell to Manzanar" is by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston. In a foreword Jeanne Houston notes that this book, which tells about the internment of a Japanese-American family during World War II, is a true story. "Farewell" is a rich and fascinating chronicle. The Houstons follow the lives of the members of the Wakatsuki family before, during, and after the experience of internment.
The narrative is full of compelling details of the family's experiences. It is particularly intriguing to watch how the internment camp evolved into "a world unto itself, with its own logic"--a "desert ghetto." During the course of the book the authors discuss many important topics: religion, education, anti-Asian bigotry, the impact of the Pearl Harbor attack, the military service of Japanese-Americans during the war, and more.
The Houstons write vividly of the dislocation, humiliation, and injustice faced by the Wakatsuki family. Also powerful is the narrator's struggle to come to terms with her own ethnic identity.
For an interesting companion text, I would suggest "Desert Exile," by Yoshiko Uchida; this book also deals with the internment experience, but from a somewhat different perspective which complements that of the Houstons. I was moved by "Farewell." The book is a profound meditation on both the hope and the tragedy of the United States, in which the "American dream" can become intermingled with American nightmares. I consider this book an important addition to Asian-American studies in particular, and to the canon of multiethnic U.S. literature in general.
Comment 57 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsShould be required reading in all public schools
By A Customer on September 22, 2001
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Now that we live in a country where terrorists crash into skyscrapers, we find ourselves on the brink of war. More than ever, it is of tantamount importance that we remember our nations' past errors. To ignore what our parents and grandparents have lived and learned will set the stage for repetition of persecution of the innocent. The Japanese-Americans on the west coast during WWII were snatched from their homes, jobs and lives. They were placed in internment camps and held for no other reason than the slant of their eyes. After years of living behind barbed wire and treated no better than animals, they were released and sent "home". What they found was their homes and property repossessed, businesses destroyed, and replacements at their jobs. For a proud and self-reliant people, it was the ultimate degradation. Farewell to Manzanar is an eloquent reminder that America is not immune to racial fear and hysteria. To avoid a perpetuation of hate and bias, we must educate our children. I read this book at the age of ten and have continued to re-read it for the last 20 years. Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston has educated generations with this detailed account of her family's ordeal. I wish this book was required reading in all public schools.
Comment 42 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsPlaintive memoir about being a Japanese American
By A Customer on March 9, 1999
Format: Mass Market Paperback Verified Purchase
I bought this memoir for our church library because it is an excellent personal story about living in a Japanese-American internment camp during World War Two. It is a book about paradoxes: the differences between American living and Japanese traditions; the pride of being Japanese American and the shame of being suspected as traitors; and the dichotomy between an America fighting for freeedom while legislating forced incarceration of American citizens. This book will appeal to students who have studied World War Two and the Holocaust because it turns the spotlight on the hypocrisy of the American government. Although people of the time might say, "things were different then," I would say "yes, they were" and point to this racist example of something America should never do to its people again. This book would also appeal to adults. Most of the baby boomers who I have asked to read this book have all liked it for its truth and plaintive, ethereal ending. An excellent memoir. Congratulations Jean, on a beautiful book.
Comment 15 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse

Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Excellent book about a very shameful part of our history.

Published 2 days ago by Lita Gloor Little
4.0 out of 5 starsPowerful remembrance

Finely told narrative. A disquieting disconnect between finding a way to live a normal life and the overshadowing reason for having to find it.

Published 3 days ago by Scott Richburg
5.0 out of 5 starsAn Important Book About a Sad Chapter in American History

I was profoundly moved by this book. It used to be required reading in high schools and I can see why. I wish it still was. Read more

Published 23 days ago by X. Libris
4.0 out of 5 stars... read this as a kid 30 years ago and loved it. Recommended it to my...

I read this as a kid 30 years ago and loved it. Recommended it to my 13 year old son last month and he also enjoyed it.

Published 24 days ago by Johanna Hofmeister
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Purchased for school, item exactly as described

Published 24 days ago by Dr. Carter
4.0 out of 5 starsChildhood adventure, adult tragedy

Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston revisits the three years she and her family spent in Manzanar, one of ten internment camps run by the US War Department for relocated persons of Japanese... Read more

Published 1 month ago by Sandra M Yeaman
3.0 out of 5 starsThree Stars

Nice

Published 1 month ago by Sabrina Mcrae
4.0 out of 5 starsVery Good Story...

But the story teling and grammar needs work. The storry often jumps ahead wiithout warning. But as far as the story goes, it was a very eye opener depicting a bad time in... Read more

Published 1 month ago by Unknown :)
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

A book everyone should read!

Published 1 month ago by Lorelei
5.0 out of 5 starsI love teaching this book

As a teacher, I use this true story to provide an opportunity for my English Language students to read authentic material, relating to a topic they may know nothing about. Read more

Published 2 months ago by Amazon Customer

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Farewell to Manzanar
Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more
This item: Farewell to Manzanar
Set up a giveaway

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?

There's a problem loading this menu right now.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.



Pages with Related Products. See and discover other items: books about camp fiction