Missing in Action
Dirty. Lazy. Good-for-nothing. Jay Thacker is used to being called names because his dad is half Navajo. But things are different after he and his mother move to a small town in Utah to stay with his grandparents during World War II. Jay makes friends and earns money working the fields for his well-respected grandfather—but he encounters a problem in Ken, a fellow worker who’s from the nearby Japanese internment camp. Ken’s a Jap. And Jay’s dad, who’s been fighting for the Navy out in the Pacific, is missing in action. This understated and moving story from the author of the acclaimed <I>Soldier Boys</I> chronicles an unlikely friendship and gives readers a glimpse of the past that enlightens the present.