Dear America: Early Sunday Morning

10Feb10

Title: Dear America: Early Sunday Morning: The Pearl Habor Diary of Amber Billows

Author: Barry Denenberg

Year: 2001

Genre: Young Adult, History, Diary

Pages: 152

Series: Dear America

Early Sunday Morning is the diary of Amber Billows as she deals with moving from Washington, DC to Hawaii. Because of her father’s job (reporter) they move quite a lot and Amber starts a new diary every time her father tells the family that they’re moving. At first Amber doesn’t want to move since the school year has already started and she hates not getting to start a new school in September like all the other kids. Despite throwing a fit initially, she soon gets over it. After she and her family move, her life seems to move on. She makes a new friend, Kame, a girl of Japanese decent (of course). However, not long after the Billows family starts getting used to their new life in the US territory (Hawaii wasn’t a state yet), the Japanese  attack Pearl Habor. It’s not very long after the attack that Mr. Billows annonces that the family is moving again, thus the end of this diary for Amber.

I didn’t feel that this book was long enough. The story itself only being 132 pages out of the 152 (the last 20 pages being filled with information on how life was in 1941 and historic pictures like all Dear America books). The last entry is Christmas, only a few weeks after the attack. It would have been nice how Hawaii dealt with the life after the attack (longer than a few weeks). I personally felt that the whole thing was rushed. I mean, the story was still good, as it appeals to any girl who has had to move far away from her friends and family (myself included), particularly at a young age like Amber did. I suggests this book for anyone interested in Pearl Habor or the World War II era.

Rating: 3/5

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Tags: 1941, Dear America, December 7, diary, Hawaii, JUV FIC, Pearl Habor