We Are Not Free

Modern Age
We Are Not Free Author: Chee, Traci Buy at Amazon | BookShop.org Time Period: Modern Age Time Frame: 1942-1945 Geographic Area: North America Country: United States Topics: WWII Genre: Fiction, Own Voices Reading Age: Young Adult, Adult Format: Novel Published: 2020

American History > Modern Age > WWII

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.

Emily's Review

This was my favorite book of 2020 and I have pushed this story on everyone I can since then. This YA novel is about the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. The story is told through multiple perspectives, a group of teenagers who lived in the same neighborhood in San Francisco. I appreciate that they each have individual voices - I never lost track of who's perspective I was reading. Just the fact that there were so many - 14 different character perspectives - that is worthy of high praise. But not just that, each character was written with so much depth, emotion, and personality. They each had a unique perspective to bring to the story.

I felt so immersed in their stories, I laughed, I cried, I raged with them at the injustices they suffered. This book was phenomenal and important and I can't recommend it enough.

Other Similar Books

Other suggestions on the subject of World War II (Japanese Internment).

• Baseball Saved Us (by: Mochizuki, Ken, MG, LE)
• The Bracelet (by: Uchida, Yoshiko, LE, MG)
• Sylvia & Aki (by: Conkling, Winifred, MG)
• Paper Wishes (by: Sepahban, Lois, MG)
• Stealing Home (by: Torres, J, MG, UMG)
• Fred Korematsu Speaks Up (by: Atkins, Laura, Yogi, Stan, MG, UMG)
• Weedflower (by: Kadohata, Cynthia, UMG)
• The War Outside (by: Hesse, Monica, YA, A)
• When the Emperor Was Divine (by: Otsuka, Julie, YA, A)
• No-No Boy (by: Okada, John, YA, A)
• Displacement (by: Hughes, Kiku, YA, A)
• They Called Us Enemy (by: Takei, George, YA, A)
• We Are Not Free (by: Chee, Traci, YA, A)
• Farewell to Manzanar (by: Houston, Jeanne Wakatsuki, YA, A)
• Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (by: Ford, Jamie, YA, A)
• Within These Lines (by: Morrill, Stephanie, YA, A)

Other suggestions on the subject of World War II.

• The Bracelet (by: Uchida, Yoshiko, LE, MG)
• You Wouldn't Want to Be a Secret Agent During World War II (by: Malam, John, LE, MG)
• Baseball Saved Us (by: Mochizuki, Ken, MG, LE)
• Classified: The Secret Career of Mary Golda Ross (by: Sorell, Traci, LE, MG)
• You Wouldn't Want to Be a World War II Pilot (by: Graham, Ian, LE, MG)
• Stealing Home (by: Torres, J, MG, UMG)
• History Smashers: Pearl Harbor (by: Messner, Kate, MG, UMG)
• On the Horizon: World War II Reflections (by: Lowry, Lois, MG, UMG)
• Island War (by: Reilly Giff, Patricia, MG)
• An Elephant in the Garden (by: Morpurgo, Michael, MG)
• Sylvia & Aki (by: Conkling, Winifred, MG)
• World War II Naval Forces: An Interactive History Adventure (by: Raum, Elizabeth, MG)
• The War That Saved My Life (by: Brubaker Bradley, Kimberly, MG)
• Yonder (by: Standish, Ali, MG, UMG)
• The Attack on Pearl Harbor: An Interactive History Adventure (by: Lassieur, Allison, MG)
• Lily's Crossing (by: Reilly Giff, Patricia, MG)
• The War I Finally Won (by: Brubaker Bradley, Kimberly, MG)
• Max in the House of Spies: A Tale of World War II (by: Gidwitz, Adam, MG, UMG)
• The House of Sixty Fathers (by: DeJong, Meindert, MG)
• World War II Pilots: An Interactive History Adventure (by: Burgan, Michael, MG)
• Number the Stars (by: Lowry, Lois, MG)
• The Night War (by: Brubaker Bradley, Kimberly, MG, UMG)
• Paper Wishes (by: Sepahban, Lois, MG)
• Just a Girl: A True Story of World War II (by: Levi, Lia, MG)
• Willow Run (by: Reilly Giff, Patricia, MG)
• Twenty and Ten (by: Bishop, Claire Hutchet, MG)
• World War II Infantrymen: An Interactive History Adventure (by: Otfinoski, Steven, MG)
• Safiyyah's War (by: Noor Khan, Hiba, MG, UMG)
• Snow Treasure (by: McSwigan, Marie, MG)
• A Whale in Paris (by: Presley, Daniel, Polders, Claire, MG)
• Raid of No Return (by: Hale, Nathan, MG, UMG)
• Genevieve's War (by: Reilly Giff, Patricia, MG)
• Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes (by: Coerr, Eleanor, MG)
• Fred Korematsu Speaks Up (by: Atkins, Laura, Yogi, Stan, MG, UMG)
• World War II Spies: An Interactive History Adventure (by: Burgan, Michael, MG)
• The Little Riders (by: Shemin, Margaretha, MG)
• The Dollmaker of Krakow (by: Romero, R. M., UMG)
• The Songbird and the Rambutan Tree (by: Abendanon, Lucille, UMG, YA)
• The Book Thief (by: Zusak, Markus, YA, UMG)
• When My Name Was Keoko (by: Park, Linda Sue, UMG)
• Catherine's War (by: Billet, Julia, UMG)
• Code Name Kingfisher (by: Kessler, Liz, UMG, YA)
• A Place to Belong (by: Kadohata, Cynthia, UMG, YA)
• Heroes: A Novel of Pearl Harbor (by: Gratz, Alan, UMG, YA)
• World War II: Kids Who Survived Tell Their Stories (by: Nicholson, Dorinda, UMG)
• Guts & Glory: World War II (by: Thompson, Ben, UMG)
• Code Girls (Young Readers Edition) (by: Mundy, Liza, UMG, YA)
• Code Talker (by: Bruchac, Joseph, UMG)
• When the World Was Ours (by: Kessler, Liz, UMG, YA)
• Under the Broken Sky (by: Smith, Sherri L., UMG)
• Weedflower (by: Kadohata, Cynthia, UMG)
• The Bletchley Riddle (by: Sepetys, Ruta and Sheinkin, Steve, UMG)
• Girl in the Blue Coat (by: Hesse, Monica, YA, A)
• Double Victory: How African American Women Broke Race and Gender Barriers to Help Win World War II (by: Mullenbach, Cheryl, YA, A)
• Barefoot Gen 2 (by: Nakazawa, Keiji, YA, A)
• World War II: The Definitive Visual History (by: DK, YA, A)
• The Library of Legends (by: Chang, Janie, YA, A)
• When the Emperor Was Divine (by: Otsuka, Julie, YA, A)
• Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II (by: Mundy, Liza, YA, A)
• The Port Chicago 50 (by: Sheinkin, Steve, YA)
• My Long List of Impossible Things (by: Barker, Michelle, YA, A)
• Code Name Verity (by: Wein, Elizabeth, YA)
• Code Name Pauline: Memoirs of a World War II Special Agent (by: Cornioley, Pearl Witherington, YA, A)
• Barefoot Gen 3 (by: Nakazawa, Keiji, YA, A)
• Within These Lines (by: Morrill, Stephanie, YA, A)
• In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors (by: Stanton, Doug, YA, A)
• Mare's War (by: Davis, Tanita S., YA)
• The Shadow War (by: Smith, Lindsay, YA)
• X, Y & Z: The Real Story of How Enigma Was Broken (by: Turing, Dermot, YA, A)
• Maus I (by: Spiegelman, Art, YA, A)
• Bomb: The Race to Build --and Steal-- the World's Most Dangerous Weapon (by: Sheinkin, Steve, YA)
• The Boys Who Challenged Hitler (by: Hoose, Phillip, YA, A)
• Women Heroes of World War II―the Pacific Theater: 15 Stories of Resistance, Rescue, Sabotage, and Survival (by: Atwood, Kathryn J., YA, A)
• Displacement (by: Hughes, Kiku, YA, A)
• Parallel Journeys (by: O'Brien, Tim, YA, A)
• Anya's War (by: Alban, Andrea, YA)
• Kursed (by: Smith, Lindsay, YA)
• Wrath Becomes Her (by: Polydoros, Aden, YA, A)
• No-No Boy (by: Okada, John, YA, A)
• Maus II (by: Spiegelman, Art, YA, A)
• The Faithful Spy (by: Hendrix, John, YA, A)
• Salt to the Sea (by: Sepetys, Ruta, YA, A)
• Seized by the Sun: The Life and Disappearance of World War II Pilot Gertrude Tompkins (by: Atwood, Kathryn J., YA, A)
• Nothing Sung and Nothing Spoken (by: Tyndall, Nita, YA, A)
• Farewell to Manzanar (by: Houston, Jeanne Wakatsuki, YA, A)
• Leonora in the Morning Light (by: Carter, Michaela, YA, A)
• Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (by: Ford, Jamie, YA, A)
• The Berlin Boxing Club (by: Sharenow, Robert, YA, A)
• White Rose (by: Wilson, Kip, YA, A)
• The War Outside (by: Hesse, Monica, YA, A)
• The Blossom and the Firefly (by: Smith, Sherri L., YA, A)
• All the Light We Cannot See (by: Doerr, Anthony, YA, A)
• They Called Us Enemy (by: Takei, George, YA, A)
• Great or Nothing (by: McCullough, Joy, Tung Richmond, Caroline, Sharpe, Tess, Spotswood, Jessica, YA)
• Barefoot Gen 1 (by: Nakazawa, Keiji, YA, A)
• Names in a Jar (by: Gold, Jennifer, YA, A)
• Flowers in the Gutter (by: Gaddy, K. R., YA, A)
• Between Shades of Gray (by: Sepetys, Ruta, YA, A)
• We Were the Lucky Ones (by: Hunter, Georgia, YA, A)
• The Paper Girl of Paris (by: Taylor, Jordyn, YA, A)
• The Last Checkmate: A Novel (by: Saab, Gabriella, YA)
• Atomic Women: The Untold Story of the Scientists Who Helped Create the Nuclear Bomb (by: Montillo, Roseanne, YA, A)
• We Are Not Free (by: Chee, Traci, YA, A)
• The Postcard (by: Berest, Anne, A)
• The Last Rose of Shanghai: A Novel (by: Dai Randel, Weina, A)
• The Bookseller of Dachau (by: Ryan, Shari J., A)
• Maria: A Novel of Maria von Trapp (by: Moran, Michelle, A)
• The Kitchen Front (by: Ryan, Jennifer, A)
• Light Perpetual (by: Spufford, Francis, A)
• The Underground Library (by: Ryan, Jennifer, A)
• The German Wife (by: Rimmer, Kelly, A)