Seen and Unseen by Elizabeth Partridge and Lauren Tamaki - ESSENTIAL

Seen and Unseen: What Dorothea Lange, Toyo Miyatake, and Ansel Adams's Photographs Reveal about the Japanese American Incarceration by Elizabeth Partridge and Lauren Tamaki, 123 pages. NON-FICTION Chronicle/Blue Apple. 2022. $22 

Language: G; Mature Content: G; Violence: PG (protesting resulting in people shot and 1 death). 

BUYING ADVISORY: EL, MS - ESSENTIAL 

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE 

After the Japanese Military bombed the American base at Pearl Harbor in 1941, Japanese and Japanese Americans along the west coast of the United States were gathered up and imprisoned in camps for the duration of the war. Lange, Miyatake and Adams were photographers who documented this experience. 

The text on the pages is brief, with the pictures telling the bulk of the story. I loved that one perspective was Japanese, and that Lange and Adams had differing opinions about the imprisonment. Tomaki's illustrations are great, my favorite is when she finished a photograph, showing the reader what wasn't in the picture the public saw. A great book for a student who wants to learn more - easily accessible for upper elementary, or could easily be used in a class to introduce this element of WWII. 

Lisa Librarian