  | Live in infamy Author: Richmond, Caroline Tung | |
| Price: $6.50 | ||
Summary:
It has been eighty years since the Axis won World War II, and America was divided between the victors: the Nazis in the East and Imperial Japan in the West; but now resistance is growing in the Eastern territories and sixteen-year-old Chinese American Ren Cabot, who has every reason to hate the Japanese who executed his mother, finds himself drawn into a resistance group and confronted with choices that could lead to freedom-or death.
| Accelerated Reader Information: Interest Level: UG Reading Level: 6.30 Points: 13.0 Quiz: 193873 | Reading Counts Information: Interest Level: 9-12 Reading Level: 5.70 Points: 19.0 Quiz: 77751 | |
Full Text Reviews:
School Library Journal - 01/01/2018 Gr 5–8—The Allied powers have lost World War II. The United States, now sliced into pieces held by Japan, Italy, and Germany exists under strictly enforced racial and social hierarchies. The story is set in the Japanese-controlled Western American Territories, where ruling monarch Crown Prince Katsura uses threats of being sent to jail, re-education centers (housed in the former Japanese concentration camps), or execution by the Imperial Army's Ronin Elite to keep the populace under control. The Ronin Elite are "anomalies" possessing a gene enabling them to kill with a look or a touch. Despite this, a resistance movement is growing bolder and the frustrated Crown Prince is becoming increasingly repressive. Ren Tsai, son of a white American man, was forced to watch the execution of his Chinese American mother for treason. He secretly took up her work and became a resistance propagandist known as The Viper. Circumstances force Ren to come forward and assist in a daring plot which will dramatically increase the rebel movement's strength. The straightforward narrative has few twists, and characters are developed just well enough to tell the story. Social issues have as much weight here as the historical elements. The simplicity of the story works in the book's favor; potentially challenging material is accessible to middle grade readers, but there is enough action to hook older ones. VERDICT This is a good introduction to historical reimagining for middle grades; all readers will be engaged with the handling of social issues as well as revelations about the secret pockets of resistors, their plots, and their battles with authorities.—Carla Riemer, Claremont Middle School, Oakland - Copyright 2018 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.
