Journey to Topaz (50th Anniversary Edition) - by Yoshiko Uchida (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of a landmark work of juvenile fiction.

"A haunting reminder of how indignities and dignity can reside side by side." --Terry Tempest Williams

This much-loved and widely read classic is the moving story of one girl's struggle to remain brave during the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans. In 1941, eleven-year-old Yuki is looking forward to Christmas when disaster strikes: she and her family, along with everyone of Japanese descent on the West Coast, are labeled enemy aliens. The FBI arrests her father, and she, her mother, and her brother are imprisoned in a bleak and dusty camp surrounded by barbed wire in the Utah desert. There, she and her family experience both true friendship and heart-wrenching tragedy.

Journey to Topaz explores the consequences of prejudice and the capacities of the human spirit. First published in 1971, this novel was the first children's book about the wartime incarceration written by a Japanese American. This fiftieth anniversary edition features new cover art, a refreshed design, and a new foreword by Traci Chee.

Review Quotes

"The novel, set in Utah's western desert, where thousands of Japanese American families were held as prisoners, remains a haunting reminder of how indignities and dignity can reside side by side." --Terry Tempest Williams, New York Times

"Reading Journey to Topaz in the twenty- first century can be heart-breaking and infuriating, but I also hope it is empowering, especially to young people, because even if we can never truly right the wrongs of our past, we can still act--right now--so that we do not have to carry these wrongs into the future." --Traci Chee, author of We Are Not Free, from the foreword to this edition

"Yoshiko Uchida blazed a trail in Japanese American storytelling, identifying the delicate yet strong strand that kept families together under harsh and destructive circumstances. It's no surprise why this groundbreaking novel for younger readers has remained a classic." --Naomi Hirahara, author of Clark and Division and 1001 Cranes

About the Author

Yoshiko Uchida (1921--1992) was born in Alameda, California, and grew up in Berkeley. She is the author of many books, including Desert Exile: The Uprooting of a Japanese-American Family, Journey to Topaz and Samurai of Gold Hill.

Traci Chee is a Japanese American author of young adult fiction. Her novel, We Are Not Free, was a National Book Award Finalist, Printz Honor Book, and Walter Honor Book. We Are Not Free also received starred reviews from School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and Booklist.