My Nest of Silence, by Matt Faulkner (eBook preview)

Presenting … First-chapter Friday, the eBook edition. This month’s selection features My Nest of Silence, by Matt Faulkner.

Manzanar is nothing like home. Yet the relocation center is where Mari and her family have to live, now that the government has decided that Japanese Americans aren’t American enough. Determined to prove them wrong, Mari’s brother Mak has joined the army and is heading off to war. In protest, Mari has stopped talking for the duration of the war. Or at least until Mak comes home safe. Still, Mari has no trouble expressing herself through her drawings. Mak, too, expresses himself in his letters home, first from training camp and later from the front lines of World War II, where he is fighting with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. But while his letters are reassuring, reality is not: Mak is facing danger at every turn, from racism within the army to violence on the battlefield. My Nest of Silence is a nominee, in 2024-2025, for the California Young Reader Medal, in its Middle School/Junior High category. Read via the Libby app, obtained through Sacramento Public Library.
https://youtu.be/B81kSXWfWhg

First-chapter Friday (eBook edition) playlist on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6F1x26TGVFEcBDoaAd8F7JZ3_ayFeTJ7

California Young Reader Medal playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6F1x26TGVFEQizME6Xwl704yy7K_Cr62