We Are Not Free

* NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST * PRINTZ HONOR BOOK * WALTER HONOR BOOK * ASIAN/PACIFIC AMERICAN AWARD FOR LITERATURE HONOR BOOK *

From New York Times best-selling and acclaimed author Traci Chee comes We Are Not Free, the collective account of a tight-knit group of young Nisei, second-generation Japanese American citizens, whose lives are irrevocably changed by the mass U.S. incarcerations of World War II.

Fourteen teens who have grown up together in Japantown, San Francisco.

Fourteen teens who form a community and a family, as interconnected as they are conflicted.

Fourteen teens whose lives are turned upside down when over 100,000 people of Japanese ancestry are removed from their homes and forced into desolate incarceration camps.

In a world that seems determined to hate them, these young Nisei must rally together as racism and injustice threaten to pull them apart.

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400 pages

Average rating: 7.6

5 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

happeninheidi
Jul 05, 2023
10/10 stars
This was such a quick read! Let’s start with the light parts… I loved the friendship and the connections between all the characters. I cried when I read it. If that doesn’t mean I’m invested, I don’t know what does. I knew about the incarceration of Japanese- Americans in theory, but in actuality knew nothing. This book opened my eyes, and was beyond heartbreaking.

I absolutely think this book was educational for me, and I think it’s such a good read. Plausible historical fiction at its best.

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