Overview

It's 1941 and ten-year-old Norman Mineta is a carefree fourth grader in San Jose, California, who loves baseball, hot dogs, and Cub Scouts. But when Japanese forces attack Pearl Harbor, Norm's world is turned upside down. Corecipient of The Flora Stieglitz Straus Award A Horn Book Best Book of the Year It's 1941 and ten-year-old Norman Mineta is a carefree fourth grader in San Jose, California, who loves baseball, hot dogs, and Cub Scouts. But when Japanese forces attack Pearl Harbor, Norm's world is turned upside down. Corecipient of The Flora Stieglitz Straus Award A Horn Book Best Book of the Year One by one, things that he and his Japanese American family took for granted are taken away. In a matter of months they, along with everyone else of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast, are forced by the government to move to internment camps, leaving everything they have known behind. At the Heart Mountain internment camp in Wyoming, Norm and his family live in one room in a tar paper barracks with no running water. There are lines for the communal bathroom, lines for the mess hall, and they live behind barbed wire and under the scrutiny of armed guards in watchtowers. Meticulously researched and informed by extensive interviews with Mineta himself, Enemy Child sheds light on a little-known subject of American history. Andrea Warren covers the history of early Asian immigration to the United States and provides historical context on the U.S. government's decision to imprison Japanese Americans alongside a deeply personal account of the sobering effects of that policy. Warren takes readers from sunny California to an isolated wartime prison camp and finally to the halls of Congress to tell the true story of a boy who rose from ""enemy child"" to a distinguished American statesman. Mineta was the first Asian mayor of a major city (San Jose) and was elected ten times to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he worked tirelessly to pass legislation, including the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. He also served as Secretary of Commerce and Secretary of Transportation. He has had requests by other authors to write his biography, but this is the first time he has said yes because he wanted young readers to know the story of America's internment camps. Enemy Child includes more than ninety photos, many provided by Norm himself, chronicling his family history and his life. Extensive backmatter includes an Afterword, bibliography, research notes, and multimedia recommendations for further information on this important topic. A California Reading Association Eureka! Nonfiction Gold Award Winner Winner of the Society of Midland Authors Award's Children's Reading Round Table Award for Children's Nonfiction A Capitol Choices Noteworthy Title A Junior Library Guild Selection A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year A Bank Street Best Book of the Year - Outstanding Merit

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9780823441518

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Reviews

In Enemy Child, Andrea Warren shares with the world what Norman Mineta's many friends have known for years: He is a national treasure. Her luminous book tells the story of the Japanese American incarceration with depth and grace and shows how Norm's life is truly an American journey. --Shirley Ann Higuchi, Chair of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation This is absolutely one of the most important stories for all Americans to know. Andrea Warren's skillful research and writing, and Norman Mineta's irrepressible spirit and patriotism, make Enemy Child a truly special book. --Steve Sheinkin, three-time National Book Award Finalist and author of Bomb, The Port Chicago 50 and Undefeated An encompassing look at Norman Mineta, the first Asian-American to serve as mayor of a major American city, a Congressman, and Secretary of Commerce and Transportation under George W. Bush. . . . Writing efficiently with concise descriptors, Warren narrates in the third person, focusing primarily on the family and social environment of Mineta's school-age years. . . . Their lives are quickly disrupted by World World II. Mineta now 11, his parents, and most of his much-older siblings are sent to an internment camp in Santa Anita, California. Eventually they end up in Heart Mountain Camp, Wyoming. The experience drives Mineta to later pursue politics and to introduce the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, offering camp survivors restitution and a formal apology from the government. Warren includes anecdotes of white allies, including a chapter about Alan Simpson, a childhood acquaintance and later a political ally of Mineta in Congress. Pronunciation guides to Japanese are provided in the text. Archival photographs provide visuals, and primary-source quotes--including racial slurs-- contribute historical context. . . . an invaluable record of an incredible life. --Kirkus Reviews

In Enemy Child, Andrea Warren shares with the world what Norman Mineta's many friends have known for years: He is a national treasure. Her luminous book tells the story of the Japanese American incarceration with depth and grace and shows how Norm's life is truly an American journey. --Shirley Ann Higuchi, Chair of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation This is absolutely one of the most important stories for all Americans to know. Andrea Warren's skillful research and writing, and Norman Mineta's irrepressible spirit and patriotism, make Enemy Child a truly special book. --Steve Sheinkin, three-time National Book Award Finalist and author of Bomb, The Port Chicago 50 and Undefeated Writing efficiently with concise descriptors, Warren narrates in the third person, focusing primarily on the family and social environment of Mineta's school-age years. . . . Their lives are quickly disrupted by World World II. Mineta now 11, his parents, and most of his much-older siblings are sent to an internment camp in Santa Anita, California. Eventually they end up in Heart Mountain Camp, Wyoming. The experience drives Mineta to later pursue politics and to introduce the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, offering camp survivors restitution and a formal apology from the government. Warren includes anecdotes of white allies, including a chapter about Alan Simpson, a childhood acquaintance and later a political ally of Mineta in Congress. Pronunciation guides to Japanese are provided in the text. Archival photographs provide visuals, and primary-source quotes--including racial slurs-- contribute historical context. . . . an invaluable record of an incredible life. --Kirkus Reviews Warren's biography adroitly covers Mineta's subsequent education and distinguished career. Extremely well researched and boasting Mineta's cooperation, the book is generously illustrated with period black-and-white photos. It's a fascinating record of an eventful and significant life. --Booklist Interweaving historical background, various accounts, and Mineta's first-person recollections, Warren skillfully illuminates what it felt like to be targeted and imprisoned. Mineta's memories range from seeing his father cry after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, to his own pride at the passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which apologized for and provided restitution to internment survivors. One powerful chapter recounts the day that future senator Alan Simpson, then a Wyoming Boy Scout, met Mineta in the nearby internment camp; the two remain friends and ardent defenders of constitutional rights. Archival photos throughout are augmented by additional information, multimedia sources, a bibliography, and notes. There are still too few books for youth about U.S. Japanese-American internment, and this affecting volume offers an essential view. --Publishers Weekly

In Enemy Child, Andrea Warren shares with the world what Norman Mineta's many friends have known for years: He is a national treasure. Her luminous book tells the story of the Japanese American incarceration with depth and grace and shows how Norm's life is truly an American journey. --Shirley Ann Higuchi, Chair of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation This is absolutely one of the most important stories for all Americans to know. Andrea Warren's skillful research and writing, and Norman Mineta's irrepressible spirit and patriotism, make Enemy Child a truly special book. --Steve Sheinkin, three-time National Book Award Finalist and author of Bomb, The Port Chicago 50 and Undefeated

Author Information

Andrea Warren is a writer and journalist who has written many award-winning nonfiction books for children, including Orphan Train Rider- One Boy's True Story, winner of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award; Surviving Hitler- A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps, a Robert F. Sibert Honor Book; and Escape from Saigon- How a Vietnam War Orphan Became an American Boy. Ms. Warren lives in Kansas.

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