Heroes

Teacher's Choices, International Literacy Association (ILA) Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People, National Council for the Social Studies/ Children's Book Council Notable Children's Book, SmithsonianA Japanese American boy learns about heroism from his father and uncle who served in the U.S. Army.Donnie is tired of playing the bad guy every time he and his friends get together to play war. According to the other kids, Donnie should play the enemy-after all, as a Japanese American he looks like "them." Instead, Donnie wishes they could just play his favorite game, football. When he argues that his family served in the U.S. Army, Donnie's friends laugh and dare him to prove it. But when he asks his father and Uncle Yosh for proof, they tell him that kids should play something else besides war. "Real heroes don't brag," Uncle Yosh says. "They just do what they are supposed to do." Set against the backdrop of the 1960s, this intergenerational story explores how one family de