HTTP 200 OK
Allow: OPTIONS, GET
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": "We Are Not Free (book)",
"doctype": "articles",
"links": {
"html": "https://resourceguide.densho.org/We%20Are%20Not%20Free%20(book)/?format=api",
"json": "https://resourceguide.densho.org/api/3.0/articles/We%20Are%20Not%20Free%20(book)/?format=api"
},
"title_sort": "wearenotfreebook",
"description": "Young adult novel by Traci Chee that tells the wartime incarceration story through the eyes of a group of teenage friends from San Francisco.",
"rg_rgmediatype": [
"books"
],
"mediatype_label": "Books",
"mediatype_icon": "fa-book",
"rg_interestlevel": [
"Grades 7-8",
"Grades 9-12"
],
"rg_genre": [
"Children's",
"Historical Fiction"
],
"rg_theme": [
"Coming of age",
"Companionship as salvation",
"Facing darkness",
"Importance of community"
],
"rg_readinglevel": [
"Grades 7-8",
"Grades 9-12"
],
"rg_availability": [
"Widely available"
],
"categories": [
{
"title": "Arts"
}
],
"topics": [],
"authors": [
{
"title": "Brian Niiya",
"json": "https://resourceguide.densho.org/api/3.0/authors/Brian%20Niiya/?format=api",
"html": "https://resourceguide.densho.org/authors/Brian%20Niiya/?format=api"
}
],
"sources": [],
"title": "We Are Not Free (book)",
"published_rg": true,
"modified": "2021-05-24T21:01:46",
"databoxes": {
"rgdatabox-Core": {
"rgmediatype": [
"books"
],
"title": [
"We Are Not Free"
],
"creators": [
"Traci Chee"
],
"interestlevel": [
"Grades 7-8",
"Grades 9-12"
],
"readinglevel": [
"Grades 7-8",
"Grades 9-12"
],
"guidedreadinglevel": [],
"lexile": [],
"theme": [
"Coming of age",
"Companionship as salvation",
"Facing darkness",
"Importance of community"
],
"genre": [
"Children's",
"Historical Fiction"
],
"pov": [
"Nisei teenagers"
],
"relatedevents": [],
"availability": [
"Widely available"
],
"freewebversion": [
"No"
],
"primarysecondary": [],
"hasteachingaids": [
"No"
],
"warnings": [],
"denshotopic": [],
"geography": [],
"chronology": [
"1942–45"
],
"facility": [
"Topaz (Central Utah) [1] - Delta, Utah",
"Tanforan [15] - San Bruno, California"
]
},
"databox-Books": {
"title": [
"We Are Not Free"
],
"author": [
"Traci Chee"
],
"illustrator": [],
"origtitle": [],
"country": [],
"language": [],
"series": [],
"genre": [
"Children’s",
"Historical Fiction"
],
"publisher": [
"Houghton Mifflin Harcourt"
],
"pubdate": [
"2020"
],
"currentpublisher": [],
"currentpubdate": [],
"mediatype": [],
"pages": [
"400"
],
"awards": [],
"isbn": [
"Finalist, National Book Awards 2020",
"Kirkus Reviews' Best Books of 2020",
"Walter Honor Book, Teen Category, 2021",
"Printz Award Honor Book, 2021"
],
"worldcatlink": []
}
},
"rg_title": [
"We Are Not Free"
],
"rg_creators": [
"Traci Chee"
],
"rg_pov": [
"Nisei teenagers"
],
"rg_freewebversion": [
"No"
],
"rg_chronology": [
"1942–45"
],
"rg_hasteachingaids": [
"No"
],
"body": "<div class=\"mw-parser-output\">\n <div id=\"databox-Books\" style=\"display:none;\">\n <p>\n Title:We Are Not Free;\nAuthor:Traci Chee;\nIllustrator:;\nOrigTitle:;\nCountry:;\nLanguage:;\nSeries:;\nGenre:Children’s; Historical Fiction;\nPublisher:Houghton Mifflin Harcourt;\nPubDate:2020;\nCurrentPublisher:;\nCurrentPubDate:;\nMediaType:;\nPages:400;\nAwards:;\nISBN:Finalist, National Book Awards 2020; Kirkus Reviews' Best Books of 2020; Walter Honor Book, Teen Category, 2021; Printz Award Honor Book, 2021;\nWorldCatLink:;\n </p>\n </div>\n <div class=\"rgonly\">\n <!--\"rgdatabox-CoreDisplay\" removed-->\n <div id=\"rgdatabox-Core\" style=\"display:none;\">\n <p>\n RGMediaType:books;\nTitle:We Are Not Free;\nCreators:Traci Chee;\nInterestLevel:Grades 7-8; Grades 9-12;\nReadingLevel:Grades 7-8; Grades 9-12;\nGuidedReadingLevel:;\nLexile:;\nTheme:Coming of age; Companionship as salvation; Facing darkness; Importance of community;\nGenre:Children's; Historical Fiction;\nPoV:Nisei teenagers;\nRelatedEvents:;\nAvailability:Widely available;\nFreeWebVersion:No;\nPrimarySecondary:;\nHasTeachingAids:No;\nWarnings:;\nDenshoTopic:;\nGeography:;\nChronology:1942–45;\nFacility:Topaz (Central Utah) [1] - Delta, Utah; Tanforan [15] - San Bruno, California;\n </p>\n </div>\n </div>\n <p>\n Young adult novel by Traci Chee that tells the wartime incarceration story through the eyes of a group of teenage friends from San Francisco.\n </p>\n <p>\n Each of the sixteen chapters—which begin just prior to the forced removal and end with the return to San Francisco in 1945—is written in the first-person voice of one of fourteen teens, with each getting at least one chapter. The range of voices allows the story to cover the core events of the experience, from leaving home, incarceration at\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Tanforan_(detention_facility)\" title=\"Tanforan (detention facility)\">\n Tanforan\n </a>\n and\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Topaz\" title=\"Topaz\">\n Topaz\n </a>\n , the \"[[Loyalty questionnaire|loyalty questionnaire],\" military service,\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Segregation\" title=\"Segregation\">\n segregation\n </a>\n and\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Tule_Lake\" title=\"Tule Lake\">\n Tule Lake\n </a>\n , and the\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Return_to_West_Coast\" title=\"Return to West Coast\">\n return home\n </a>\n . The group experiences love and loss, sees friendships deepen and dissolve, and grapples with the question of what it means to be American and \"Japanese\" while coming of age in uniquely difficult circumstances. An author's note details the book's origin in the author's family history, historical liberties taken, and its contemporary relevance.\n </p>\n <p>\n Known for her best-selling\n <i>\n The Reader\n </i>\n fantasy trilogy, Chee turned to her family's wartime incarceration for\n <i>\n We Are Not Free\n </i>\n . Her grandparents were incarcerated at Topaz as teenagers, and though they had both passed away by the time she began work on the book, she was able to interview surviving relatives starting in 2016. She was also able to read letters her grandfather wrote to her grandmother while he was in the army in 1945. Struck by how different their various experiences had been, she turned to the multi-character format to reflect that diversity.\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref1_1-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref1-1\">\n [1]\n </a>\n </sup>\n </p>\n <p>\n The book is historically accurate for the most part, though it embellishes the travails faced by the incarcerated Japanese Americans in a number of places: inmates are made to disrobe for medical inspections upon entering Tanforan, they note the barbed-wire fence around Topaz as they enter (construction of the fence was just starting as inmates arrived), and a riot/martial law situation is invented at Topaz after the shooting of an\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Issei\" title=\"Issei\">\n Issei\n </a>\n man during the registration period. (The author acknowledges basing this shooting on the shooting of\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/James_Hatsuaki_Wakasa\" title=\"James Hatsuaki Wakasa\">\n James Hatsuaki Wakasa\n </a>\n and moving it forward two months.) The final chapter that takes place in San Francisco in February and March of 1945 describes events—staying in a Buddhist church hostel, fruitless searches for housing, the closing down of Topaz—that actually took place six or more months later.\n </p>\n <p>\n <i>\n We Are Not Free\n </i>\n was honored with several major awards, including being named a 2020 National Book Awards Finalist in the Young People's Literature category, a 2021 Walter Dean Myers Award for Outstanding Children's Literature Honor Book, and a 2021 Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book.\n <sup class=\"reference\" id=\"cite_ref-ftnt_ref2_2-0\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_note-ftnt_ref2-2\">\n [2]\n </a>\n </sup>\n </p>\n <div id=\"authorByline\">\n <b>\n Authored by\n <a class=\"encyc notrg\" href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/wiki/Brian_Niiya\" title=\"Brian Niiya\">\n Brian Niiya\n </a>\n , Densho\n </b>\n </div>\n <div id=\"citationAuthor\" style=\"display:none;\">\n Niiya, Brian\n </div>\n <p>\n Might also like\n <i>\n <a class=\"encyc rg\" href=\"/wiki/The War Outside (book)/\" title=\"The War Outside (book)\">\n The War Outside\n </a>\n </i>\n by Monica Hesse;\n <i>\n <a class=\"encyc rg\" href=\"/wiki/Weedflower (book)/\" title=\"Weedflower (book)\">\n Weedflower\n </a>\n </i>\n by Cynthia Kadohata;\n <i>\n <a class=\"encyc rg\" href=\"/wiki/A Fence Away From Freedom: Japanese-Americans and World War II (book)/\" title=\"A Fence Away From Freedom: Japanese-Americans and World War II (book)\">\n A Fence Away From Freedom: Japanese-Americans and World War II\n </a>\n </i>\n by Ellen Levine\n </p>\n</div>\n",
"moreinfo": "<div class=\"section\" id=\"For_More_Information\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"For_More_Information\">\n For More Information\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <p>\n Publisher website:\n <a class=\"external free offsite\" href=\"https://www.hmhbooks.com/shop/books/We-Are-Not-Free/9780358330004\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n https://www.hmhbooks.com/shop/books/We-Are-Not-Free/9780358330004\n </a>\n </p>\n <p>\n Author website:\n <a class=\"external free offsite\" href=\"http://www.tracichee.com/we-are-not-free.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n http://www.tracichee.com/we-are-not-free.html\n </a>\n </p>\n </div>\n</div>",
"reviews": "<div class=\"section\" id=\"Reviews\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Reviews\">\n Reviews\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <p>\n Carton, Debbie.\n <i>\n Booklist\n </i>\n , Apr. 1, 2020, 76. [\"Her passion and personal involvement combine with her storytelling talents to create a remarkable and deeply moving account of the incarceration.\"]\n </p>\n <p>\n Hunt, Jonathan.\n <i>\n The Horn Book Magazine\n </i>\n , Sept./Oct. 2020, 85. [\"The result is slightly disorienting as characters come and go, but the overall effect is nuanced and kaleidoscopic.\"]\n </p>\n <p>\n <a class=\"external text offsite\" href=\"https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/traci-chee/we-are-not-free/\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n <i>\n Kirkus Reviews\n </i>\n , Apr. 5, 2020\n </a>\n . [\"This is a compelling and transformative story of a tragic period in American history…. Each voice is powerful, evoking raw emotions of fear, anger, resentment, uncertainty, grief, pride, and love.\"]\n </p>\n <p>\n Kwong, DeHanza.\n <i>\n School Library Journal\n </i>\n , Apr. 2020, 138–39. [\"Chee's words are a lot to take in, but necessary and beautiful all the same. This remarkable book deserves to be in any library collection.\"]\n </p>\n <p>\n <a class=\"external text offsite\" href=\"https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-358-13143-4\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n <i>\n Publishers Weekly\n </i>\n , July 6, 2020, 78\n </a>\n . [\"Ambitious in scope and complexity, this is an essential contribution to the understanding of the wide-ranging experiences impacting people of Japanese ancestry in the U.S. during WWII.\"]\n </p>\n </div>\n</div>",
"footnotes": "<div class=\"section\" id=\"Footnotes\">\n <h2>\n <span class=\"mw-headline\" id=\"Footnotes\">\n Footnotes\n </span>\n </h2>\n <div class=\"section_content\">\n <div class=\"reflist\" style=\"list-style-type: decimal;\">\n <div class=\"mw-references-wrap\">\n <ol class=\"references\">\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref1-1\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref1_1-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n Traci Chee, \"To Ask for a Story,\"\n <i>\n Booklist\n </i>\n , Aug. 2020, 59; Roger Sutton, \"Traci Chee Talks with Roger,\" The Horn Book, Inc. website, Sept. 9, 2020,\n <a class=\"external free offsite\" href=\"https://www.hbook.com/?detailStory=traci-chee-talks-with-roger-2020\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n https://www.hbook.com/?detailStory=traci-chee-talks-with-roger-2020\n </a>\n ; and Traci Chee interview by Alice Cary, BookPage, Sept. 1, 2020,\n <a class=\"external free offsite\" href=\"https://bookpage.com/interviews/25511-traci-chee-ya#.YEK2e5NKhTZ\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n https://bookpage.com/interviews/25511-traci-chee-ya#.YEK2e5NKhTZ\n </a>\n , both accessed on Mar. 5, 2021.\n </span>\n </li>\n <li id=\"cite_note-ftnt_ref2-2\">\n <span class=\"mw-cite-backlink\">\n <a class=\"\" href=\"#cite_ref-ftnt_ref2_2-0\">\n ↑\n </a>\n </span>\n <span class=\"reference-text\">\n 2020 Winners, National Book Foundation,\n <a class=\"external free offsite\" href=\"https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-2020/?cat=ypl\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-2020/?cat=ypl\n </a>\n ; The Walter Awards,\n <a class=\"external free offsite\" href=\"https://diversebooks.org/programs/walter-awards/\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n https://diversebooks.org/programs/walter-awards/\n </a>\n ; Printz Award, Young Adult Library Services Association,\n <a class=\"external free offsite\" href=\"http://www.ala.org/yalsa/printz-award#current\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n http://www.ala.org/yalsa/printz-award#current\n </a>\n , all accessed on Mar. 5, 2021.\n </span>\n </li>\n </ol>\n </div>\n </div>\n <!-- \nNewPP limit report\nCached time: 20230613175609\nCache expiry: 86400\nDynamic content: false\nComplications: []\nCPU time usage: 0.022 seconds\nReal time usage: 0.029 seconds\nPreprocessor visited node count: 372/1000000\nPost‐expand include size: 7365/2097152 bytes\nTemplate argument size: 1653/2097152 bytes\nHighest expansion depth: 5/40\nExpensive parser function count: 0/100\nUnstrip recursion depth: 0/20\nUnstrip post‐expand size: 1851/5000000 bytes\nExtLoops count: 0\n-->\n <!--\nTransclusion expansion time report (%,ms,calls,template)\n100.00% 19.030 1 -total\n 13.78% 2.623 1 Template:Reflist\n 12.29% 2.339 1 Template:RGDatabox-Core\n 11.09% 2.110 1 Template:Databox-Books\n 7.26% 1.381 1 Template:AuthorByline\n 7.06% 1.343 1 Template:Published\n 6.73% 1.280 1 Template:publish-rgonly\n-->\n <!-- Saved in parser cache with key encycmw:pcache:idhash:4348-0!canonical and timestamp 20230613175609 and revision id 33599\n -->\n </div>\n</div>"
}