Author. Teacher-Librarian. Creator.

Obaasan's Boots

By Janis Bridger and Lara Jean Okihiro   Illustrated by Yuka Yamaguchi

Published by Second Story Press
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Released October 3, 2023

Obaasan's Boots

"They had everything taken from them because they were Japanese."

Cousins Lou and Charlotte don’t know a lot about their grandmother’s life. When their Obaasan invites them to spend the day in her garden, she also invites them into their family’s secrets. Grandma shares her experience as a Japanese Canadian during WWII, revealing the painful story of Japanese internment. Her family was forced apart. Whole communities were uprooted, moved into camps, their belongings stolen. Lou and Charlotte struggle with the injustice, even as they marvel at their grandmother’s strength. They begin to understand how their identities have been shaped by racism, and that history is not only about the past.

This is Janis' first children's chapter book, co-written with her cousin, Lara Jean Okihiro, and published by Second Story Press.

"A book that so beautifully captures the intimate and ongoing effects of internment on post war Japanese Canadian families. Bridger and Okihiro fully inhabit the idea that 'history is not only about the past' by tracing its present-day echoes and reverberations."

-Kyo Maclear, author of Virginia Woolf, The Wish Tree, and Spork
https://festivalofauthors.ca/book-author/kyo-maclear/

""This book could also be included in a children’s literature class or in a thematic unit about works of literature that focus on the Second World War’s impact on people from different communities. Highly Recommended.""

-Canadian Review of Materials 

"Beautifully done."

-Joy Kogawa, bestselling author of Obasan, Naomi's Road, and Naomi's Tree
Photo by Beatrice S. Paez/The Origami

"The history of this time, place, and people is told without false emotion. We hear the experiences explained in answer to the questions of two young girls curious to understand why, as cousins, they have been raised a continent apart. The concepts involved are explained concisely but vividly. The result is a moving novel with much to recommend it to adult readers as well as to younger people."

-Valerie Adolph, Historical Novel Society