Dear America Series: "Early Sunday Morning" The Pearl Harbor Diary of Amber Billows. By: Barry Denenberg

While searching in the library I found the Dear America series and instantly remembered reading some of these books as a young girl. I remember laying on my top bedbunk spending hours reading about these young women and their experiences they lived through during important historical events in time. Although these stories are fictional, the information given about the time period in american history is true. Some of the women are fictional characters and some are real characters. The Dear America series is written in diary form and are actually written by various authors. I always wrote in a diary as a young girl so I imagine that is why i loved reading these books too.

The particular book that I picked up and read for this assignment was "Early Sunday Morning": The Pearl Harbor Diary of Amber Billows. Amber Billows is a young girl who grows up traveling with her parents and brother because her father is a reporter during the war around 1941. Amber starts a new diary every time she moves to a new state so this book is broken up into two parts: Washington state and Oahu Hawaii. The book has a slow start, as Amber writes about her daily routine and drama that she has with her school friends. When she finds out she is moving, she won't talk to her father for a few days, but then eventually gets excited about the move. As it gets closer, she has anxiety about not knowing how to speak their language, dress appropriately, and know how to act in the different culture. However, as soon as she gets there she meets her bestfriend and she realizes there are many people with different ethnic backgrounds including Japanese, Chinese, Hawaiian but can still be "american". Amber's new bestfriend is Kame and she is Japanese. Amber is surprised at how good Kame can speak english. When Pearl Harbor gets bombed things drastically change for Amber. She stops going to school and starts to go to the hospital with her mom to help all the wounded soldiers and civilians. Amber sees many people die and people she knows suffer from the bombings. Amber's friend Kame is going through a hard time as well, because at this time, people were afraid that the Japanese Americans would turn against America. Kame's father was taken away for questioning, and Kame's family was banned from speaking Japanese over the telephone. The story doesn't really have an ending, but leaves you kind of sad for Amber and her family and friends. There is an epilogue that tells what happened to the real Amber Billows after the war.

This book would definitely be appealing to any young girl who enjoys learning about history, but also anyone that enjoys reading about others' hardships with friends, family, and life obstacles. This book is a great way for kids to learn about historical events because it's interesting and they can connect with these young characters at a personal level. There are some descriptive scenes that depict what happened to the wounded soldiers and ships when Pearl Harbor was attacked.

I enjoyed reading this book, but was surprised at how fast and easy the text was. The recommended age for this book is 12+ but I would argue that any advanced third or fourth grader would be able to read and enjoy these Dear America Books.