Who Are You, Trudy Herman?

April 1, 2018
It is 1943, but the war feels far away from Trudy. She is on the cusp of becoming a teenager, and her thoughts revolve around homework, friends, and the possibility of getting a boyfriend?until three men in black suits show up at her doorstep. In an instant, the war is made chillingly present when her academic father is interned at a camp as an enemy alien. This novel offers a window into a lesser-known aspect of internment in WWII: U.S. citizens of German heritage being treated as enemies. Soon Trudy and her mother?the latter, like Trudy's father, was born in Germany?are also sent to a camp in the desert. Their two years behind the barbed wire will mark each of them, and, even after their release, they will carry the experience into their new lives. Eventually the family settles in Mississippi, where they witness the entrenched racial discrimination that so strongly echoes their own recent trials. When a regular girl confronts extraordinary challenges, this novel forcefully asks what it takes to stand up for what is right.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)