Hello Maggie! (book)

Autobiographical children's picture book about a pet bird who enlivens a Japanese American family's confinement in a World War II concentration camp.

Author Shig Yabu was ten years old when he and his family were forcibly removed from their Los Angeles home, ultimately ending up at the Heart Mountain , Wyoming, camp. One day, Shig and a group of friends sneak out of the camp to explore a nearby river. They carelessly shoot a slingshot at a bird's nest in a tree and are surprised when a baby magpie climbs out of the downed nest. Shig takes the bird home and adopts it as a pet, naming it Maggie. Maggie soon becomes popular with kids throughout the camp and even learns to say a few words. She and Shig become inseparable and Maggie becomes a part of many aspects of their life at Heart Mountain.

A longtime official with the Boys Club, Yabu became a board member of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation and authored Hello Maggie! as a way to tell the story of his and his family's wartime incarceration. Illustrator Willie Ito was also incarcerated as a child and later became a renowned animator for Walt Disney Studios, Warner Brothers, and other companies.

A revised 2nd Edition includes new text and drawings about the Japanese American WWII military units.