the way i cried during this book is not even funny 🥺🥺 my brain cannot process the emotions and i dont think i'll ever be able to write a review for this one ahhhh

wow, what a completely stunning and heartbreaking novel about a history we don’t learn enough about. i absolutely adored every page of this and every character. i felt so completely immersed in this group of friends, and my heart cheered and broke for them. truly, this is a novel that feels like an instant classic of the YA category, and i would love to see it taught in schools one day. it comes out this september, and i highly recommend picking it up!read via an advance copy from hmh

a stark, fiercely written story based on the mass incarcerations of japanese-american citizens during world war ii. i'm crushed and hurt and grateful i got to read this incredible book - achingly raw, gutting, necessary. also, the way traci chee managed to write the povs of fourteen people and give each of them a distinct voice is so impressive. highly recommend. cws: racism, anti-japanese/east asian slurs, hate crimes, physical assault, war, deathrep: japanese-american cast, mlm pov character

Truly a beautiful book! I am so emotional right now and I'm definitely going to have to re-read it because there was so much to take in. It really reminds me of the vibe the Outsiders had in how it represents a close-knit friend group (that's more like family). A powerful and heartbreaking look into history. We Are Not Free compels us to face the reality that when fear guides us, our humanity suffers.My official blurb:A powerful and heartbreaking look into history. In a time when it's integral t...

I've learned about Executive Order 9066 (pretty much an order to incarcerate people of Japanese ancestry) couple years ago when I was reading the book about Dorothea Lange. She visited one of the detention centers and made some very emotional photos of that place. I still remember my shock and disbelief. So when this book showed up on my radar I knew I will have to check it out.We are not free tells the story of the forced relocation from the perspective of a group of teenagers. Every chapter is...

Printz Honor 2021Very educational, for those who want to learn about internment camps and persecution of Japanese American citizens during WWII. But lacking in vibrant characters. 10+ POVs, almost indistinguishable from one another. Didactic. Important, but not a compelling work in itself.I'd recommend They Called Us Enemy instead.

Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || PinterestI was very excited when I learned about WE ARE NOT FREE, not just because of that amazing cover, but because it's written from the perspective of Japanese-Americans during WWII. In WE ARE NOT FREE, we, the readers, are introduced to the atmosphere of racism many Asian Americans (not just Japanese-Americans) faced due to anti-Japanese sentiments, life in the internment camps, and how it feels to be fighting a war for a country you thought

6/5 stars because why the heck not, it deserves it.Thanks to Edelweiss for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!This was by far the best standalone, maybe even the best book I’ve read all year. I laughed, I cried, and I cried some more. This was perfect, from the storytelling to the writing and I’m going to have my work cut out for me getting it all into a review, but I’m sure going to try. Fourteen Japanese-American teenagers grew up together in Japantown, San Francisco. But when the Japanes...

A heartbreaking, incredibly important book to read. The author managed to create a very bittersweet atmosphere through this story, with the cutest characters trying to fight for what's best, when they're not even sure what that even means. Sometimes I wish we'd had less points of view to read from, so we got to spend more time in each section, but I loved everything else!We had a liveshow for the Tea Leaves book club about this book, if you're interested in hearing more of our thoughts 🥰 https:/...

A brilliant and necessary book.

I think the topic of this book is incredibly important and I really appreciate the author’s depth of research, as well as her willingness to share anecdotes from her own family’s experiences during this horrific historical event. I think this is a great book to pick up if you’re interested in learning more about the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII. I think what lost me in this book is that it follows 14 different narrators. While this isn’t technically an anthology since the charact...

i weep. this book is pure emotion, pure pain, pure soul i swear. 😭a ww2 historical fiction centering on the lives of a group of japanese-american teens, through a staggering but brilliantly executed 14 povs, it poignantly touches on the discrimination during the war back then, as well as the indomitable pride despite the identity struggle of these teenagers. outside is the camp, the barbed wire, the guard towers, the city, the country that hates us. but in here, we are together. we are not fr...

EDIT- The author has a youtube channel too guys! go check it out! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxM4...-------This is the third and final book I binge read to celebrate the end of my exams (till the next ones come within a month) and words fall short to explain how much this book moved me. I am glad I picked up this book.The author also has a youtube channel with reasearch storied related to this book on it so check it out!The book revolves around 14 japanese-amarican teens living in Japantow...

Such a powerful, raw, and heartbreaking book. Try not to read this in public because I was listening to this audiobook in the car and started crying uncontrollably near the end. So heartbreaking. This book starts when Japanese Americans are forced into incarcerations camps and their whole lives are upended. The story is told in different perspectives of the teenagers who live in the camp and their journeys over the years. I absolutely loved the audiobook and how we had different narrators for ea...

I grew up in the 1980s and 1990s and World War 2 was covered extensively in history class every year. And yet, I don't remember any of my teachers talking about the US internment/incarceration camps. Pretty sad that most people of my generation can say it wasn't part of their school's curriculum either. I'm thankful this historical fiction book is available for today's generation of young readers. And it certainly is a worthwhile read for an adult as well.After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, FDR o...

Damn. This book really punched me in the heart. It tells the story of the forced incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II through fourteen different teenage and young adult characters. I was really interested in reading this because, at least when I was in school, this topic was never focused on enough and we didn’t truly get into what a horrific part of our country’s history this was. Traci Chee is an amazing writer. To have fourteen different POV characters and have them all hav...

seems like we as a society should probably talk more about the fact that we imprisoned everyone of a certain race not even a century ago.this book might be a good place to start.i have a hard time enjoying books like this, where there are about 92 main characters, because i can only generously like 1 character per book (and that's on a good day) plus i get confused, but...i see the purpose of doing that here. because jesus christ we took away the innocence of thousands of children and the liveli...

i received a review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. all opinions below are my own.world war ii is an important part of every history curriculum – we are all taught about the allied powers and the axis powers, the bombings, the gunshots, and sometimes, about the suffering as well. how many people, however, have heard of the japanese american internment camps, and knew the stories of the people who lived there?in the centre there’s a drawing of a japanese soldier with diagonal

This book was fantastic. There are a lot of characters but each one felt real and I was able to connect to them even in the short time we had together. This was by no means an easy read, but the author did a fantastic job of writing the story in a way that makes it compulsively readable. I couldn’t put it down. I felt for these characters, there was so much emotion packed in here and so much heart. Definitely a must read.

"It’s been over three months since the attack on Pearl Harbor, and my oldest brother, Mas, has told me to come straight home from school each day."This novel is a historical fiction that starts three months since the attack on pearl harbor. Readers will be taken through a heartbreaking and yet beautiful journey of the 14 Japanese American who were ripped from their neighborhood in San Francisco and were forced to live off in incarceration camps during WWII.We Are Not Free is one of the best book...