Garden of Stones

November 5, 2012
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, teenaged Lucy Takeda and her family are sent to the Manzanar relocation camp in the California desert, but her father's death leaves Lucy and her beautiful mother, Miyako, without protection. Inside, survival means a seamstress job and putting up with the aggressive advances of George Rickenbocker, a brutal businessman overseeing Miyako's work at the camp. Rickenbocker, a stereotypical villain, gets Miyako pregnant, casually casts her aside, and makes it clear that Lucy is next. Desperate to protect her daughter, Miyako disfigures Lucy, stabs Rickenbocker to death, and hangs herself, leaving Lucy alone until she's allowed to leave the camp. Years later, in San Francisco, a murder investigation leads the police to Lucy's door, and forces Lucy to tell her own daughter, the same age now that Lucy was in the camp, the horrible tale she's kept inside for so long. By looking at the effects of internment across generations, Littlefield (Hanging by a Thread) makes her tale resonant and universal. While some plot twists are predictable, the gripping story, unfolding over two different decades, makes up for it. Agent: Barbara Poelle, the Irene Goodman Agency.

December 1, 2012

Lucy Takeda is 14 years old and living the life of a normal teenager in Los Angeles until the attack on Pearl Harbor. After that, Japanese Americans are regarded with suspicion and fear, and the government responds by forcing them to leave their homes and move to Manzanar, a remote prison camp. The brutal realities of camp life hit Lucy and her mother hard, and their struggle to adapt is both heart-wrenching and admirable. Thirty-six years later, Patty Takeda, Lucy's daughter, is about to marry and goes to live with her mother before the wedding. Secrets come to light that not only shatter Patty's illusions but threaten to take away Lucy's freedom once again. VERDICT Mystery, fantasy, and young adult author Littlefield (A Bad Day for Sorry; Aftertime), turns her hand to historical fiction in this novel based on the true events in a Japanese American internment camp during World War II. A mystery and an unsolved murder at the heart of the novel add suspense to the moving story. Littlefield's fans and those who enjoy historical novels are sure to devour this one.--Cynthia Price, Francis Marion Univ. Lib., Florence, SC

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2012
Suspense, mystery, and love drive the intricate plot in this moving drama of women in a Japanese American family over the course of three generations. In 1978, Patty is preparing for her wedding when her mother, Lucy Takeda, is accused of murdering a man in her neighborhood. Locals say they could identify Lucy by her horrifying facial deformity. Back to 1942, after Pearl Harbor, when Lucy, 14, is called Jap at school, and even her best friend avoids her. Lucy cannot speak Japanese; to her, we means Americans. But she and her beautiful widowed mother, Miyako, are forced from home in Los Angeles and imprisoned in the Manzanar concentration camp. Life in the camp is a big part of the storythe grim forced labor in Block Fourteen, the dust and heat and overflowing toilets, and also the sexual abuse that Miyako suffers. How far will she go to save her daughter? Patty sees photo albums with images of her gorgeous grandmother and mother. What happened to Lucy? The shocking revelation is unforgettable.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)