The author weaves a memoir of her family’s time in a Japanese internment camp with a time travel adventure depicting other historical events in the Utah Topaz camp and relate those experiences with today’s culture of separating families at the boarder and ceasing immigration on Muslims. Excellent illustrations and emotional depiction of loss, fear, and displacement. Very relevant.

Displacement by Kiku Hughes is an interesting combination of fiction and real life happenings and I kind of liked the fact that I don't know which parts were real outside of the time travel of course. Kiku is on a vacation in San Francisco with her mom and suddenly this smoke transfers her to a Japanese-American internment camp in the 1940s. Her grandmother Ernestina went there after WW2 because that's what the US government made them do. Basically it was a prisoner camp basically and the people were monitored so that they wouldn't try anything after Pearl Harbor. Not so far from the Nazi camps really, even though the people didn't get killed the same way. I actually didn't know about this, which made this comic that more interesting for sure. Kiku lives at the camp, but doesn't interfere with her grandma only to come back to home to know her mother had done the same years ago. I really enjoyed the living memories idea.

The art looks good and serene for the story and the colors compliment it too. Perhaps I would've wanted to know more about the grandma's life and more details than just Kiku living the same everyday. This was slightly too much like "another day at the camp" style of thing which made this lack depth. I wish comics like this were made more. About things that happened, but not many know of. Interesting history and grave too.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a DRC of this title for review. All opinions are my own.

This was a fantastic middle grade graphic novel. Highly recommended as a first purchase for all collections, but especially for those where graphic novels are in high demand. I think this will be incredibly popular with student readers and would also serve as a great curricular resource for history and social studies classes. Kiku, the narrator, is pulled back in time through "displacements" and is able to follow along with her maternal grandmother as she goes to an interment camp for Japanese Americans. These displacements allow Kiku a glimpse into a past she was unaware of and show her a side of her grandmother she has never considered. When she returns home, she is able to take these new perspectives and apply them to the current world.

Full of information and also a poignant story, this was well worth the read.

This graphic novel is very enlightening and shed information on a time little discussed from America's history. The author does a perfect job of tying in past events and current events together to show the similarities. The story is about the main character Kiku who gets sent back in time to experience the internment of the Japanese Americans during WWII. The art in this story is beautiful and sets the tone of the story quite well. This graphic novel would be great for most ages and provides some historical background for and event many are unaware of.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with an ARC for an honest review.

diverse children's middlegrade/teen graphic novel (recommended for 4th grade through 10th grade) - 16 y.o. hapa (half Japanese) girl travels back in time and experiences years of Japanese-American "internment"--forced incarceration alongside her grandmother's family; juxtaposed with the Trump administration's Muslim travel ban and other dangerous discriminatory policies. She also develops a romantic relationship (dancing, hand-holding, kissing) with another teen girl. #ownvoices author.

At first this did seem a lot like Octavia Butler's Kindred (which I've only read in graphic format, but heartily recommend for teens/adults), and similar to George Takei's They Called Us Enemy (which I also recommend for its thoughtful first-hand account for teens and adults).
However, Displacement deserves recognition on its own--I appreciate the author's #ownvoices perspective (hapa and queer) and also how the story delves into the aftermath of incarceration as Kiku follows her grandmother's life in NYC after the war (suspicious cancer rates, dealing with racism), how it strengthens Kiku's connections with her mother and grandmother, how it points to the dangers of racist and religious discrimination during the Trump presidency, and creates a direct, emotional connection between the reader and the modern-day victims of such policies.
I was expecting this graphic novel to be good, but I was pleasantly surprised at how excellent it turned out, in so many ways. Very highly recommended.

Part memoir, part time travel adventure, this is the authors exploration of her grandmother's time in Topaz. She takes the opportunity to draw comparisons between the current treatment of refugees and immigrants and how the Japanese were treated in the 1940s. I noticed that we're seeing a lot of books about the Japanese internment camps coming out in the last couple years, and this seems completely reasonable to me. We can’t let history repeat. I also liked the subtlety with which she covers how LGBTQIA relations would’ve had to happen in the 40s. It doesn't detract from the main purpose of the story, while also contributing yet another part of history that must be acknowledged. I didn't care for the time travel mechanics (they seemed very forced and inexplicable), but I also realize they were a vehicle for the more important concepts, not the point of the story.

*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free graphic novel.*

Although I am not the target audience for this graphic novel (it's middle grade, I'd say), this was very well done and can also be enjoyed as an adult. The topic is not altogether enjoyable: In the WWII, entire Japanese-American families were deported to so called Internment Camps, losing their homes, jobs, and connections. "Displacement" is the semi-fictional story of a girl travelling through time to her grandmother, who was put into such an internment camp as a child. (Yes, it is sort of "Kindred", but not entirely.) She learns about this part of her family's history and experiences things similar to what she experiences in her real timeline, where Trump wants to forbid Muslims to come to the US or where children are taken away from their families (ICE).

The connections between now and then, past and present, make this graphic novel so haunting. I already knew about the internment camps, but this very personal approach allows us readers to make connections, to make the past more familiar, to get attached. And this is important, not only for middle grade readers. Also well drawn, not too much text, immersive, short.

5 Stars

Many thanks to NetGalley and First Second Books for providing me with a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Our story begins with our main character, Kiku exploring San Francisco with her mother. They are looking for an old address within the city but much of it is written in Japanese, and though that is the culture from which they are from neither of them speak the language. While on this trip, Kiku experiences what she later calls a displacement, taking a trip back in time. She is scared and unsure what these trips back in time mean and why she is experiencing them. She is simply ready to head back home where she is convinced they will stop on their own. Unbeknownst to Kiku when she gets home the past calls again and it reveals answers to many unanswered questions and questions she never even knew to ask.

“Being from the future meant very little when my education on the past was so limited.”

Powerful is the best way I know how to describe this graphic novel. It is truly amazing from start to finish. The above passage spoke volumes to me, because here we are again some 75 years later and we still haven’t learned what incarcerating a race of people can do to not only their physical selves but to their race and culture as a whole. I was touched and taken back by the candor in which Hughes spoke in terms of the loss of their language and culture. All from the fear of being perceived as disloyal to a country that had imprisoned them. This is truly one of the least spoken of times in U.S. History. So, if we choose not to educate ourselves or our children on the past from which their ancestors were a part of how are we ever to be guided into a just and righteous future.

Needless to say, I highly recommend this graphic novel for every grade level and adults as well. Great addition for those in acquisitions and collection management for any library. It is a well crafted story with beautiful artistry throughout. Due to be on the shelves August 2020.

This was a very interesting and informative graphic novel for young readers to adults. Thanks again to NetGalley and First Second for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for feedback.

This is a memoir-based GN that shows Kiku Hughes going back and forth between present day to the time when her grandmother was in Japanese internment camps during WWII (just her character, not really herself). It was really informative to read through this, as I didn’t know many details about what was mentioned during this book. It definitely kept me intrigued and wanting to know more about what happened to her grandmother and what was not discussed between these family members over the years.

** I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

One of the least spoken of times in U.S. History (at least where I went to school) is brought to life in a deeply moving story about the Japanese Internment camps. I've always felt drawn to the horrible truth of these camps (and even doing research on my own) to learn more. This graphic novel showcases the terrible situation that many Japanese Americans faced. Hughes does not shy away from the truth or from pulling the heartstrings. The parallels from the Internment to the politics of the day is enough to drive the point of Never Again home. I felt drawn to this book in many ways because of the terrible truth of Internment as well as the fact that many students in schools don't know this happened. As someone who is not Japanese or part of a minority, I know that I don't truly understand the depth of being suppressed in this way, but this book has the representation needed for those like me to truly see how others live through these atrocities.

I would call this book the "The Devil's Arithmetic" of a new generation. While I read Yolen's "Arithmetic" as a child, I have never gotten over the powerlessness you felt as the reader, watching history unfold but unable to change it. Hughes does the same with Japanese internment during WWII. While in this case, you know that most of them will make it out alive, you still wish you could comfort them in times of confusion and fear. I also appreciate teh way Hughes connected it to now, and the threat of the U.S. Government not learning from the mistakes of the past. I don't know much about how to describe the illustrations of graphic novels, but I found the images and setting very realistic and intriguing. This book is necessary, and made only more powerful in that it is a fictionalized account of the author's family history. These things happened. They were real. And they could happen again.

I can't read this file. When I try to open it in Adobe Digital Editions, I can only see pages and pages of static. Disappointing, because it looks like a very interesting story. :(

This is just what you'd expect from First Second-- a fabulously drawn and paced graphic novel with a unique perspective. Displacement by Kiku Hughes is unlike any other time travel book I've read, because the time traveller knows her own ignorance of the past. Kiku's story begins in the recent past. When she time travels, though, she's as much in the dark about the future as the community she visits in the 1940s.
I read this in just one sitting, because I couldn't put it down. I was drawn in to Kiku's friendships and her relationship with her mother. This book is a family's journey through past and present that should not be missed.

This is a great graphic novel with Young Adults. The art is simple and compelling. The story is pretty good too.

Displacement is a stunning exploration of the Japanese-American and Japanese immigrant experience in interment camps during WWII. Teenaged Kiku Hughes calls her brief trips back in time to experience what her grandmother and great-grandparents experienced displacements. Little is known about their time in the camps because they rarely spoke of it, but Kiku was able to live the confusion and fear, the hunger and grief, the impossible choices people made.
This memoir-based book is gorgeous. The art is simple and beautiful and panels are open, sometimes sprawling, like the inhospitable landscapes surrounding the camps. While the main focus is the past, the author pulls no punches when it comes to comparing Japanese internment camps and the political climate that allowed them to occur to our current political environmental. This is a powerful must-read.

The current political climate in this country sadly lends itself to reflections on historical events like the Japanese internment during WWII. This book did a great job so showing what life was like in one of the camps, but it also kept it interesting by including the current day main character and her mother. The mixture of the present and past gives Displacement a broader appeal for readers. I think this is a quality addition to any public library's YA graphic novel collection.

Excellent exploration of Japanese Internment. Kiku Hughes (the character, not the author) is displaced through time -- sent back, in short, to experience the internment of Japanese and Japanese-Americans during WWII. Her journeys put her in continual close proximity to her maternal grandmother who died long before Kiku was born and who rarely spoke of her experiences in the camps. The fantastical elements of the story of of little importance (although the correlation between time travel and collective memory of racial trauma is brilliant), as the majority of the text is focused on the experiences of those who lived in the camps and the connection between anti-Japanese sentiment in the 40s, anti-Black sentiment in the 60s, and contemporary anti-Muslim and anti-Immigrant sentiment in modern day America.