After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Americans and Canadians of Japanese ancestry were forced out of their homes and into internment camps. They had to give up most of their belongings, and lived in deplorable conditions. This is the story of one such Japanese Canadian family, as told through the eyes of one of their children. Fans of George Takei’s ‘They Called Us Enemy” will enjoy this book, I know I did.

In Stealing Home, J. Torres follows Sandy Saito and his Japanese Canadian family through their imprisonment in a Canadian concentration camp during World War II. Sandy loves baseball and cheering on the Asahi team, but his life changes after the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. Similar to the fate of Japanese Americans in the United States, families like Sandy's are forcibly removed from their homes and sent to live in hastily-built wooden shacks in remote parts of Canada. But through it all, Sandy's love of baseball brings him hope. Life in the camps is beautifully rendered by David Namisato, whose artwork brings Sandy and his family to life.

This graphic novel reminded me of Kiki Hughes's Displacement. Sandy is a little bit younger than Kiku and Ernestina and, likely because of the intended audience, the book doesn't go into as much detail about the conditions of camp life and the struggles of those imprisoned there. But Torres is able to convey Sandy's sadness, confusion, and fright at what is happening to him and his family. I'm ashamed to say I knew little about Japanese American internment during WWII and even less about Japanese Canadian interment. But together, these two books are a welcome and necessary introduction for readers of all ages. I would highly recommend Stealing Home and look forward to reading more of J. Torres's work.

I received a free e-ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

In 1941 when Pearl Harbor is attacked, Japanese people that were living in Canada and the United States were discriminated against. I’m really glad that an this widely unknown time in history is being published to kids. This graphic novel follows a child at the time who doesn’t fully grasp what is going on, so the description of what is happening has an innocence to it because there is no bias. In the afterword, the author fills in the holes that may have not been filled by the young boys point of view.

Sandy is a Japanese Canadian boy who has to leave with his family to go to an abandoned town, which is basically a prison camp. Sandy and his mother and brother are separated from his father, who is needed in the camps to help treat sick people. Throughout the story Sandy wants to watch and practice playing baseball. His father is too busy and his brother is too young. By the end of the story, his father shows him a baseball diamond that the people of the camp have made. This is a heartwarming story where no matter how much things change, there can be one good thing that doesn’t.

this was a quick read set in one of the most tragic times in human history - WWII. i love everything that's related to this period so no wonder i picked this graphic novel up!
it was more of a story about the relationship between a child and his father & also baseball so if u love baseball - u will love this more than i did cuz i don't really care about sports 😂 also this was set on a camp which just brought the memories of what people told on the internet about what they actually endured there... i do recommend reading this!

A unique glimpse into the world of Japanese internment camps, The graphics were well done and added to Sandy’s story, but the abrupt ending left me underwhelmed.

(NetGalley arc)
"Stealing home” is a short yet heartbreaking graphic novel showing a glimpse of a young boy’s experience of the aftermath of the attacks on Pearl Harbor, namely the dispossession as well as the forced relocation of the Japanese Canadian population to internment camps where people lived under terrible circumstances. Our protagonist does not only lose the life he knew, knowing that it will never come back, but is also, for a long time, separated from his father as Japanese men were sent to road camps to perform forced labor.

As difficult as it was to read certain passages, this graphic novel remains very relevant today. On the one hand, it is an important resource for educational purposes - I must admit that it filled a huge educational gap of my own as the post-Pearl Harbor suffering of the US and Canada’s Japanese population was completely left out in my history classes (Austria). Furthermore, the topics addressed in the novel, namely the discrimination, dispossession and forced relocation of people and the trauma that goes along with these horrible experiences, are still very relevant if we look at the current suffering of other people all over the world (e.g., the Uyghurs, the Rohingya people, Palestinians, and many others).

I appreciate that the novel ends with extended background information and that it provides other references for further research. I highly recommend reading it!

While the story was easy to follow and the fact it was interesting to see the eyes of Asian Americans who were affected during World War but it needed to show exactly how baseball games were played then. Look I may not be a “pro” at baseball but it would have been nice to teach us more on how they coped with organising baseball games during that time…

I received an e-copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Huge thanks to NetGalley and Kids Can Press
2.5 stars
Wanted to like this book more because this is a part of history I'm interested in. This graphic novel shows us life from the point of view of a Japanese kid living in the time of the pearl harbour attack. How it became as excuse to make racism okay, to take away rights of Japanese people living outside of Japan, the sad reality of the government calling prison camps "relocation centres". The book focuses on how baseball made the difficulties of this child easier yet there were was no game at the ending. No closing. No prologue about how long they stayed there, how they managed to leave (or not). The ending was rather abrupt and messed up the flow this book had created.

I got a e-arc from Netgalley for an honest review.

I love anything involving war, so reading about this story and what the Japanese went through even though they weren’t involved in the bombing of pearl harbour. I wish there was more to the story like when do they actually get back to their old lives?

This is a great historical graphic novel, that everyone should be adding to their collection. I am so glad to see more historical stories come out in graphic novel form, because sometimes children and even adults can relate to it better by seeing it.
Stealing Home is a glimpse of Sandy Sato and his family's life in the Japanese internment camps in Canada. I loved the illustrations and how well the it all flowed. I loved the look into baseball in the camp and how it united them and helped them continue to have hope.
I just wanted a bit more from the story. But I did like all the information at the end.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

This was another well done historic graphic novel about Japanese internment during World War II. This reminded me of two other graphic novels - They Called Us Enemy and Displacement and the award-winning picture book - Baseball Saved Us. I like how the baseball analogy was tied into the story in how it related to Japanese Americans and Canadians ability to endure during these challenging times. My fourth grade students are very interested in learning about World War II, and I can definitely use a book like this to expose them to the reality of what was happening in our country as a result of Pearl Harbor. I like that this subject is being featured in books for younger readers because I don't remember learning about this when I was in school, and it is important for us to understand America's dark history so we do not repeat it. This historical graphic novel would be a great addition to promote diverse literature in any upper elementary or middle school library.

Stealing Home is a beautiful and heartbreaking historical fiction graphic novel. It follows Sandy Saito, a Japanese boy living in Canada. As a big fan of the Asahi team, all Sandy wants is to play ball. However, Sandy's life takes a big turn after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. His friends in class are starting to act mean to him and Japanese people aren't allowed to go to certain places, for example the beach. Some Japanese people are even being sent to internment camps. And not long after, so is Sandy's family...

The description of Stealing Home says "long with its links to social studies and history lessons, this book offers a perfect lead-in to discussions about differences, inclusion and empathy, and about why this history is relevant today." and I couldn't have said it better (which is probably also the reason why I'm not a writer). What stands out in this graphic novel isn't just that it can lead to discussions about inclusion in history, but also in present day.

What didn't sit well with me however, was the ending of the graphic novel. A major subject in Stealing Home is how playing baseball together with other people in a similar position can help with dealing with the situation, and just as we were getting to that point, the story ended. I would have loved to see an epilogue.

I thought this was a pretty interesting story, because it teaches you about a personal experience during the war. However, the ending was pretty abrupt, and I felt like there could've been more to it

Whew, I didn't expect this very short graphic novel to be very emotional. Stealing Home is a glimpse of Sandy Sato and his family's life in the Japanese internment camps in Canada, and I really wished the brief glimpse was more of a window, as I would have liked to know more about the camp and the going ons. There was a lot of turmoil in Sandy's family and that part really made me tear up. I loved the narration style and the art was well. My only note is that I wish the length was a lot longer. The ending I felt was a nice way to tie up the story in a sort of hopeful way, and was very heartwarming compared to the rest of the book.

Stealing Home

This is a beautifully illustrated graphic novel about a young Canadian boy who was sent to an internment camp during WWII, and how baseball united and keep the hope for many in the camps.

The graphics were beautiful and the story was sad and informative. I didn’t know that Canadians also had internment camps. The ending however felt a little sudden, I thought there was going to be more. The end notes, however, provided a lot of additional information, but I wish more was included throughout the story.

I still think this is a great classroom resource for talking about the Japanese Internment camps, especially for getting all kids engaged in the topic.

Pub Date: October 5th






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A quick read about a baseball loving kid, in the midst of WWII. After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in Deember of 1941, many internment camps opened and Japanese immigrants were forced out of their homes and sent to live in those camps. Beautiful artwork and a fun story for baseball and history lovers.

This gave an interesting glimpse into what life was like for a young boy in an internment camp in Canada. Unfortunately, because of the length, this is all we got - a glimpse. I would have liked more about the day to day operations. It also seemed to end so abruptly; they play baseball and that's it, no more problems in the camp.

"It was the one thing they took from us that we were able to steal back"
This was a heartfelt book about a Japanese boy, who faced discrimination during the time of WW2 and was forced to move to a camp with his family, this heart-wrenching tale about how the boy, Sandy and his family find a safe place by playing baseball, a thing which lightens up everybody's mood!

Review to come 25th September to blog/goodreads.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

I have always been interested in stories from the WWII, so when I saw this graphic novel I just had to click that request button. I haven't read a lot of books about the internment camps for Japanese/Asian people, they aren't so easy to find. So I was eager to read this one.

In this one we meet a boy and his family. We see how the dad works as a doctor and is barely there, which I found just sad. I mean, I understand he has to work, but the kids were constantly disappointed. They went to grab their stuff to play ball and then dad would have an emergency.
Yep, a big theme in this book is baseball. They are fans of Asahi team. I loved seeing the MC play baseball, exercise with his dad (if he was there) or with his little brother (who wasn't so good). Throughout the graphic novel we will see that baseball will keep playing a big role for our MC, and I definitely like this. The MC himself was a pretty great character.

Things were looking pretty OK at the beginning... but then things quickly went south. Pearl Harbour is bombed and we see how that affects the Japanese/Asian community. People are mean to them (even friends in class). We read of internment camps. That was pretty shocking as those camps, in the beginning and maybe just at a lot of places, were little more than tents, or tons of people stuffed together. It was heartbreaking to see families broken apart, sickness spreading, worries growing.

Then it is time for our family to move to such a camp. I was at least thankful for them that the camp was houses. Not really good houses, but at least something to keep them warm/protected. The way the camp worked was interesting to read (I hope that is the right word, my mind also tries to find another word but it is not coming out). We see how our family tries to make the best of it. I was totally happy when they met up with the dad again.

The book gets interested and interested (and at times very sad or harrowing), but sadly, the ending was just way too soon in my eyes. It felt more like a chapter ending instead of a graphic novel ending. It just came out of nowhere and I feel that much more could have been said and done. Or maybe at least make it feel natural. Because of the ending I am rating this book a tad lower, from 4.5 to 4 stars.

The art was really nice, I like the style.

All in all, I am glad I have read this book. It was an interesting look in what happened in America to Japanese/Asian people. It is just heartbreaking that these people, even after the war, had to fight so hard to be accepted again. To find a home. To find jobs. To find a place to belong.

A highly emotional graphic novel for middle school audiences concerning a young baseball-loving kid in early 1940s Canada. Unfortunately for him he's trying to live his life as intended, learning to play ball and so on, when Pearl Harbour is hit, and a mass movement against the Japanese is put into motion. The neighbourhood kids declare he's a spy, and those of Japanese extraction like his family are first declared persona non grata at certain places and then put under a curfew – a curfew which doesn't sit well with his father's job of being a GP making house calls to other Japanese. And then comes the shock of the new, when they're all packed off to camps, the father to a separate work camp and the rest to an impoverished new settlement in the middle of nowhere with no amenities, communal outhouses and so on.

What we have is something expertly presented from the young lad's point of view, but never once mawkishly. It aces the feeling of estrangement when the parents argue over the father's working during curfew hours, it lightly touches on baseball as being the key thing taken from his world, and it puts a deft touch of sadness into the adults' mantra of dad being taken to "where he's needed the most". Subdued colouring and unflashy 'direction' make the visual side of the narrative perfectly on point. We close with the necessary historical context, and it seems that the Canadians just fell in line with the American anti-Japanese feeling, interning their Japanese populations just to be seen to be doing the same thing as the Yanks out of sympathy. Pearl Harbour had nothing to do with them, as far as I can tell. Still, causes schmauses, for what we're here for is the evocation of the kid's life before and during encampment, and that is so well done this has to get a top rating from me. This look at the fear the enemy within caused is a most welcome historical lesson, given in perfect fashion.