NAOMI’S ROAD

Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Markham, ON, 2005, 1^st pr thus.  ISBN 1-55005-115-6.  Trade soft cover, 119 pages.  Unread copy with very lightly tanning pages; black & white illustrations by Ruth Ohi.  ‘Daddy tells her that war is the worst and saddest thing in the world.  People get hurt and learn to be afraid.  It’s like the time the burning match made the fire in Naomi’s room.  War is more dangerous even than that, Daddy says.  It turns friends into enemies.  In Canada some people think Japanese Canadians are enemies.  “But we aren’t,” Daddy says.’ [This is not a novel that bears malice for the injustices of the war, but relates instead a tale of unquenchable human spirit, undaunted by prejudice and unable to let go of hope. – Publisher’s Weekly] (from rear wrap)