The Bracelet by Yoshiko Uchida

Yoshiko Uchida is the author of many titles for children. She was a Japanese-American writer who used her life experiences to often help tell her stories. She is the author of many famous titles to include (but certainly not be limited to):

The Invisible Thread: An Autobiography; The Terrible Leak; Picture Bride; The Dancing Kettle and Other Japanese Folk Tales; New Friends for Susan; The Magic Listening Cap: More Folk Tales from Japan; The Full Circle; Takao and Grandfather's Sword; The Promised Year; Mik and the Prowler; Rokubei and the Thousand Rice Bowls;
The Forever Christmas Tree; Sumi's Prize; The Sea of Gold, and Other Tales from Japan; In-Between Maya; Hisako's Mysteries; Sumi and the Goat and the Tokyo Express;
Makoto, The Smallest Boy; Journey to Topaz: A Story of the Japanese American Evacuation; Samurai of Gold Hill; The Birthday Visitor; The Rooster who Understood Japanese; Jar of Dreams; Desert Exile: The Uprooting of a Japanese-American Family (Autobiography); Best Bad Thing; and The Happiest Ending.

As many of the title suggest, many of her stories are focused around the difficult life of Japanese-American families during the time when racism ran high in the United States.

In The Bracelet, Emi is a little Japanese girl whose family is being sent away from their home in California to live in an internment camp. Upon her leaving, she is given a bracelet by her best friend Lauri as a token of their friendship. As they are leaving she realizes that she has lost the bracelet and she is devastated. Soon thereafter, Emi realizes that the bracelet is not needed to remember her best friend, she will always keep her in her thoughts for the kindness and friendship she had offered.

As a librarian, this is quite an interesting text. There are not many titles written about this time in American history. Partly because it happened fifty years ago and likely also because it was a hateful and dark time in our country's history. This is a wonderful story for children because it teaches the significance of friendship while also informing them about how one child faced a difficult law that was imposed by her government. The tone of this piece also is quite inspirational as we watch Emi overcome adversity despite her very difficulty situation. I loved this book especially because it is quite helpful in allowing children's natural ability to wonder come forth. They are quite intrigued by this topic, as many of them have little to no background knowledge on such a topic. I also likely enjoyed this story because I am naturally drawn to historical fiction texts, especially in the form of picture books. I also am quite drawn to this story because it is based on the real experiences of the author, Yoshiko Uchida, who grew up in America during this time.