Nora & Kettle

Gr 9 Up—Set in the 1950s, this book is told in the alternating voices of Nora, an upper-class teen struggling to protect her younger sister from their abusive father, and Kettle, a biracial homeless teen persecuted for being Japanese, caring for his makeshift homeless family. The two cross paths repeatedly without realizing until they meet late in the novel and discover they just might be the missing family they each didn't know they were searching for. This is a commendable attempt to present the persecution of Japanese Americans. However, the story's flaws outweigh its noble intentions. Both teen voices are expressed in the same adult tone, and the prose lacks the necessary sense of time and place. Many of the obstacles, such as Kettle's pursuit of work on the docks and Nora's ability to quickly adapt to hard physical labor after living a privileged existence, are easily resolved.