Gaijin: American Prisoner of War

Written by: Matt Faulkner

First line: Koji—why don't you turn on the radio while we do dishes?

Why you should read this book: Prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Japanese-American teen Koji Miyamoto never really thought about being biracial, but suddenly he looks like the enemy, and the people around him begin treating him like the enemy; he's even worried that his own father might actually be the enemy. He and his mother are surprised when he is called to an internment camp, and his mother decides to go with him, even though she is white, because she can't let him go alone. In camp, Koji faces another type of discrimination, because he's not Japanese enough, but, despite the betrayal by his government, Koji does his best to become an honorable person, and the book carries him through the end of the war and his reunification with his Japanese father.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're still in denial about what the American government did to its own citizens during World War II.