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Title details for This Light Between Us by Andrew Fukuda - Wait list

This Light Between Us

A Novel of World War II

by Andrew Fukuda
Emily Ellet
Audiobook
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0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks

For fans of The Librarian Of Auschwitz, This Light Between Us is a powerfully affecting story of World War II about the unlikeliest of pen pals—a Japanese American boy and a French Jewish girl—as they fight to maintain hope in a time of war.
"I remember visiting Manzanar and standing in the windswept plains where over ten thousand internees were once imprisoned, their voices cut off. I remember how much I wanted to write a story that did right by them. Hopefully this book delivers."—Andrew Fukuda
In 1935, ten-year-old Alex Maki from Bainbridge Island, Washington is disgusted when he's forced to become pen pals with Charlie Lévy of Paris, France—a girl. He thought she was a boy. In spite of Alex's reluctance, their letters continue to fly across the Atlantic—and along with them, the shared hopes and dreams of friendship. Until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the growing Nazi persecution of Jews force them to confront the darkest aspects of human nature.
From the desolation of an internment camp on the plains of Manzanar to the horrors of Auschwitz and the devastation of European battlefields, the only thing they can hold onto are the memories of their letters. But nothing can dispel the light between them.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    January 7, 2020

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781250263490
      • File size: 307584 KB
      • Duration: 10:40:47

  • Languages

    • English

  • Levels

    • Lexile® Measure: 690
    • Text Difficulty: 3

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Narrators Greg Chun and Emily Ellet tell a heartbreaking story of two pen pals during WWII. Chun narrates as Alex, a Japanese-American boy forced to live in an internment camp. Ellet narrates as Charlie, a French-Jewish girl who is running for her life. Much of this story is told in an epistolary style, so the painful experiences are in the first person. The narrators make the listener feel each new degradation so realistically that listeners will need to wipe their eyes. Chun also shines in the third-person perspective when the story follows Alex from Washington state to the camp and then into war. Accents change seamlessly, and both narrators bring the listener into the action. Be prepared to binge on this audiobook. A.R.F. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      November 25, 2019
      When Alex Maki of Bainbridge Island, Wash., and Charlie Lévy of Paris, France, are assigned to be pen pals in 1935, Alex is initially disappointed to learn that Charlie is a girl, and neither expects to still be writing in 1941. As they’ve grown closer, the world has darkened: in Paris, discrimination against Charlie’s Jewish family gets worse; after Pearl Harbor, Alex’s Japanese-American family is interned far from their home. In an author’s note, Fukuda (the Hunt Trilogy) says that he was inspired to write the novel after learning that Anne Frank had an American pen pal and that a subcamp of Dachau was liberated by an all-Japanese-American battalion. Drawing on these facts, the author creates a compelling juxtaposition in Charlie’s and Alex’s
      situations. Letters between the two (and Alex’s drawings) mix with a third-person account of Alex’s time at the Manzanar internment camp and fighting in Europe with the segregated 442nd Regiment. Blending realistic details of life in battle and occupied Paris with Alex’s desperation-fueled visions of Charlie, the book offers a believable hero in shy but determined Alex and introduces new chapters into history that readers may think they know. Ages 13–up.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • Lexile® Measure:690
  • Text Difficulty:3

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This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Funding for additional materials was made possible by a grant from the New Hampshire Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities.