Aleutian Sparrow

September 22, 2003
Hesse once again uses free verse to explore a historical period, but while the poetry of her Out of the Dust and Witness built a broad picture of events through the layering of a fully formed cast, here character development is sacrificed in favor of atmospheric details. Narrator Vera goes home to Kashega on the Aleutian Islands ("a necklace of jewels around the throat of the Bering Sea," as an elder describes them) for the summer of 1942, never dreaming that the older couple she looks after in Unalaska Village (also on the islands) would be bombed by the Japanese. The U.S. government then rounds up the Aleutians and transports them "safely out of the way" of the war, to relocation camps on Ward Lake, eight miles from Ketchikan, Alaska. There, surrounded by alien trees where "we find not a single leaf we recognize," Vera watches many die of disease (including her best friend, Pari), is abandoned by her mother, who moves to Ketchikan without her, and realizes she is in love with her childhood friend Alfred. The poetic images will linger in the minds of readers. Yet because the audience learns so little of Vera's interior life, her plight lacks impact, and her homecoming falls short of triumphant. Ages 10-14.

May 30, 2005
The narrator, who lives and works on the Aleutian Islands, describes the aftermath of the Japanese bombing there in the summer of 1942. According to PW
, "The poetic images will linger in the minds of readers." Ages 10-14.

October 1, 2003
Gr 6 Up-In June, 1942, Japanese forces attacked the Aleutian Islands. Within days of the attack, the U.S. military removed the Native people of these islands to relocation centers in Alaska's southwest, supposedly for their own protection. Conditions in these camps were deplorable. The Aleuts were held for approximately three years, and many of them died. In a series of short, unrhymed verses, Hesse tells this moving story through the eyes and voice of a girl of Aleut and Caucasian heritage. The novel begins at a happy time for Vera, in May, 1942, and ends with her return home in April, 1945. During the course of the story, readers see all that the Aleut people endure during these years-bewilderment, prejudice, despair, illness, death, and everyday living that does include moments of humor and even a budding romance for Vera. Hesse's verses are short and flow seamlessly, one into another. Her use of similes is a powerful tool in describing people, scenes, events, and emotions. Some less sophisticated readers, however, may not catch the nuances of phrases such as, "-where blossoms framed the steaming pools like masses of perfumed hair" or "-where the old ways steep like tea in a cup of hours." Ending on a hopeful note, Aleutian Sparrow brings to light an important time in American history, and in the process introduces readers to Aleut culture.-Mary N. Oluonye, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH

Copyright 2003 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2003
Gr. 7-12. Through the eyes of teenager Vera, Hesse dramatizes a little-known part of World War II history, the U.S. government's forced relocation of the Aleutian Islanders from their homes in Alaska to rough resettlement camps more than 1,000 miles away. But, unlike Hesse's Newbery winner " Out of the Dust "(1997), the prose poems constituting the narrative are jerky, disconnected, and distancing. A more direct personal narrative (with a map) might have been more accessible and more eloquent than these short, scattered vignettes. It's the dark history of what Americans did to their own citizens that will hold readers: after the Japanese bombed Unalaska Island in 1942, the U.S. evacuated most of the Aleut people to alien, crowded camps, where one out of four died. As Vera talks about her life in the camps, she also weaves in her people's past history and culture, ensuring that readers will want to know more.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)