The Graphic Library
  • Home
  • Reviews
    • Review List by Author
  • Terminology
  • Info Postings
  • About Me
  • Other Resources
    • Research

Displacement by Kiku Hughes

7/8/2020

0 Comments

 
Cover of Displacement
Kiku is a high schooler on vacation with her mother in San Francisco, trying to find their family home in Japantown, when she gets swept back in time to her grandmother's violin recital. She travels back and forth a few more times before she is sent back to 1942, right as her grandmother's family is being shipped out to an incarceration camp. She is "stuck" in the past for a year, living in the camps alongside other Nikkei and her grandmother, who she doesn't have the courage to speak to.  Back in the present, Kiku and her mother decide to research more of the family's history and the history of the Topaz, Utah camp, and to become activists against the camps at the U.S. Border for Latinx immigrants.

I love the element of using time travel to pull us into a historical event.  Kiku has a connection to the incarceration camps but admits she knows nothing about them prior to her displacement, so may put her on an even playing field with many readers who don't always get the opportunity to study Japanese Internment in their history classes.  This book would be a great parallel read to George Takei's They Called Us Enemy because of the subject matter, but also be Kiku's journey follows the same path as George's - Tanforan to Topaz, Utah.  While Takei's book came out as the camps at the U.S. border were being established, and thus didn't get to draw any comparisons, Displacement doesn't shy away from the opportunity to show the immigrant camps, and even sprinkles in throughout the book some of the rhetoric used by the Trump administration that echoes rhetoric used during World War II with Japanese Americans. 
Page from the novel overlooking the camps at Topaz, Utah, and the words read
One of my favorite pages is this scene overlooking the camp at Topaz, Utah. Kiku remarks about her lack of knowledge of the camps, and that ​will resonate with readers.
Hughes' illustrations are simple and clean, and beautifully colored.  The past has a brown palette, referencing the dust of the camps and the dust that precedes displacement.  The present has a teal palette, and occasionally the two are mixed together.  Character's clothing have the pop of color to contrast with the brown backgrounds, drawing the eye in to them on the page.
​
First Second rates this book for ages 12-18, and that seems appropriate.  Younger elementary audiences have probably not gotten into World War II in their course of study, so they may lack the background knowledge to contextualize this novel.  However, for those young readers who have knowledge about WWII, there is nothing in this novel that would make it inappropriate for them.

Sara's Rating: 10/10
​Suitability Level: Grades 6-12


This review was made possible with an advanced reader copy from the publisher through Net Galley.  

Publisher: First Second​
Publication Date: August 18, 2020
ISBN: 9781250193537 (Paperback)


​Tags: Rating: 10/10, Suitability: Middle School, Suitability: High School, Graphic Fiction, Historical Fiction, Autobiography, War, ​First Second
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    About Me

    I've been reading manga and comicbooks for years. Now, I write reviews and other helpful things for School Librarians, teachers, parents, and students.

    Read More

    Search this site


    Picture
    Ko-fi icon

    Never miss a review! Subscribe and get the best delivered to your inbox.

    * indicates required

    Ratings, Audience, and Subject Tags

    All
    Abrams ComicsArts
    Action Adventure
    Adaptations
    Animals
    Autobiography
    Biography
    BOOM! Studios
    Comicbooks
    CSLA 2021
    Culinary
    Dark Horse
    DC Comics
    Dead Reckoning
    Del Rey
    Demons
    Disabilities
    Dungeon
    Dystopian
    Ecchi
    Family
    Fantasy
    Farming
    First Second
    Folklore
    Friendship
    Graphic Fiction
    Graphic Nonfiction
    Graphic Universe
    Greenwillow Books
    Grief
    HarperAlley
    Hill And Wang
    Historical Fiction
    History
    Horror
    Humanoids
    Humor
    IDW
    Image Comics
    Isekai
    Iyashikei
    J Novel Club
    J-Novel Club
    Kodansha
    LGBTQ+
    Mad Cave
    Magic
    Magical Girl
    Manga
    Manhwa
    Marvel
    Mecha
    Megascope
    Memoir
    Mental Health
    Music
    Mystery
    Mythology
    Native American
    OEL Manga
    One Peace Books
    Oni Press
    Paranormal
    Penguin
    Race Relations
    Rating: 10/10
    Rating: 3/10
    Rating: 4/10
    Rating: 5/10
    Rating: 6/10
    Rating: 7/10
    Rating: 8/10
    Rating: 9/10
    Realistic Fiction
    RH Graphic
    Romance
    Saturday AM
    School Life
    Science
    Science Fiction
    SelfMadeHero
    Seven Seas
    Skybound Comet
    Slice Of Life
    Sports
    Square Enix
    Steampunk
    Suitability: Adult
    Suitability: Elementary School
    Suitability: High School
    Suitability: Middle School
    Superheroes
    Supernatural
    Surrealism
    Survival
    Suspense
    Ten Speed Press
    Theater
    TokyoPop
    Top Shelf
    Udon Entertainment
    Video Games
    VIZ Media
    War
    Western
    Yen Press

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018

Picture

​© 2022 Sara Smith

Picture
  • Home
  • Reviews
    • Review List by Author
  • Terminology
  • Info Postings
  • About Me
  • Other Resources
    • Research