Dust of Eden

“We lived under a sky so blue in Idaho right near the towns of Hunt and Eden but we were not welcomed there.” In early 1942, thirteen-year-old Mina Masako Tagawa and her Japanese-American family are sent from their home in Seattle to an internment camp in Idaho. What do you do when your home country treats you like an enemy? This memorable and powerful novel in verse, written by award-winning author Mariko Nagai, explores the nature of fear, the value of acceptance, and the beauty of life. As thought-provoking as it is uplifting, Dust of Eden is told with an honesty that is both heart-wrenching and inspirational.

Loading...
  • 144 Pages
  • 5.5" x 8"
  • 9780807517383
  • October 2018

Buy from Albert Whitman

  • $9.99
  • This item is currently out of stock.
  • 9780807517406
  • May 2015

Reviews

  • This vividly wrought story of displacement, told from Mina’s first-person perspective, begins as it did for so many Japanese-Americans: with the bombs dropping on Pearl Harbor…An engaging novel-in-poems that imagines one earnest, impassioned teenage girl’s experience of the Japanese-American internment.

    - Kirkus Reviews

  • Nagai does a wonderful job examining what it means to Mina and her family members to be American while not being treated as true citizens.

    - School Library Journal

  • This is an honest and thoughtful exploration of a complicated chapter in American history, and the book’s strong narrative voice and solid imagery will help contemporary readers understand those complexities.

    - The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

  • Nagai’s writing is spare and rhythmic—it’s real poetry.

    - The Horn Book Magazine

Awards & Accolades

  • CCBC Choices 2015
  • One of 25 of the best new middle grade novels, The Christian Science Monitor
  • Best Older Fiction of 2014, Chicago Public Library
  • 2016 Arnold Adoff New Voices Poetry Award, Honor Book

Common Core

RL.6.1,2,3,4,5,6,9,10 RH.6-8.1,2,3,4,5,6,8,10

 

  • Accelerated Reader Points: 2.0
  • ATOS Level: 5.5