{"id":20700,"date":"2021-01-25T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-25T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailywaffle.com\/stage1\/?p=20700"},"modified":"2021-10-06T09:24:02","modified_gmt":"2021-10-06T16:24:02","slug":"review-while-i-was-away-by-waka-t-brown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailywaffle.com\/stage1\/review-while-i-was-away-by-waka-t-brown\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: While I Was Away by Waka T. Brown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

They always say immersion is one of the best ways to learn a language, but when your parents send you to Japan to live with your grandmother for 5 months, it sounds like punishment. That\u2019s where we start with Waka in WHILE I WAS AWAY,<\/a> Waka T. Brown\u2019s middle grade memoir, out Tuesday, 1\/26.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I Was Away is a lovely, quietly reflective story about walking in two cultures. About being a fish out of water who learns to swim. It offers readers a window in 1980s Japan (and Kansas) and what it is to live in a culture that\u2019s totally familiar yet views you as different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Waka, there couldn\u2019t be a worse time to be separated from your friends and everything that\u2019s familiar. But the experience turns into an opportunity to learn more about her family, herself, and how both Japanese and American cultures shape her view of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I loved that Brown included visual examples of shuuji, Japanese calligraphy, and explained a bit about kanji, hiragana, and how the language works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, this is 6th\/7th grade and it\u2019s not always pretty. There\u2019s teasing and bullying, having to choose between friend groups, and even an episode where her grandmother accuses her of lying and locks her out of the house. Waka is direct about sharing her thoughts and feelings about all of these things with the reader. You can see the lessons she\u2019s learned and how she\u2019ll walk through the world taking shape. And I loved that in the end, she reflects on the entire experience, rather than leaving it open ended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an adult reader of Japanese descent, this memoir was filled with nostalgia \u2014 hearing Waka talk about collecting stickers and and sending letters on thin blue Airmail, being obsessed with pencils and erasers and cute stationery (that stays with you lifelong it turns out), but the details never make it feel like this is ancient history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I especially loved that this book illuminates another facet of the Japanese American experience, highlighting families who immigrated in the 70s and 80s and had American born kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Get WHILE I WAS AWAY from Bookshop.org<\/a> | IndieBound<\/a>|Amazon<\/a>| Apple Books<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This post includes affiliate links which kick us a small percentage at no cost to you, if you use them to shop. If this review was useful or helped you discover a new book, please use them to support my work – thanks!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

For more books about the Japanese American experience, check out:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We Are Not Free by Traci Chee<\/a> (YA)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Displacement by Kiku Hughes<\/a> (YA Graphic Novel)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Time Will be Different by Misa Sugiura<\/a> (YA)<\/p>

<\/div>
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They always say immersion is one of the best ways to learn a language, but when your parents send you to Japan to live with your grandmother for 5 months, it sounds like punishment. That\u2019s where we start with Waka in WHILE I WAS AWAY, Waka T. Brown\u2019s middle grade memoir, out Tuesday, 1\/26. While…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[149],"tags":[3022,2907,3021,2914,3019,3020],"class_list":["post-20700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-reviews","tag-japan","tag-japanese-american-2","tag-kansas","tag-memoir","tag-middle-grade","tag-waka-t-brown"],"yoast_head":"\nReview: While I Was Away by Waka T. Brown - DailyWaffle<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In Waka T. 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