[LM_NET] SHARE: A Modern Classic I helped bring to publication

[Ken Umbach <ken@UMBACHCONSULTING.COM>]

Hi, folks . . .

I was going to wait until closer to actual publication date to post a 
review of Kiyo Sato's forthcoming book Dandelion Through the Crack, but I 
just have to share this.  Sacramento Bee colunist Anita Creamer has written 
a terrific feature article in the Sacramento Bee about this wonderful book. 
In the article, she quotes former California State Librarian, University of 
Sourthern California History Professor Kevin Starr, whose praise of the 
manuscript was pivotal in helping it reach publication and in keeping the 
author's spirits up despite turndowns she had received from commercial and 
academic publishers. (The book is to be published by a small but 
enthusiastic and supportive regional press in Nevada City, California.)

Article by Sacramento Bee columnist Anita Creamer (with photos):

http://www.sacbee.com/creamer/story/235673.html

Excerpt:

http://www.sacbee.com/107/story/235669.html

I am quoted in the article.  When I say Dandelion is a classic in the 
making (a phrase quoted), I mean that **one hundred percent**.  I have read 
it six or seven times (both for pleasure and for copy editing/proofing), 
and every time through I find something new in it. I cannot open it to any 
page without being entranced. The subtleties and deeper themes are there to 
be found on rereading. Incredibly, considering the central place in the 
book of the forced relocation and imprisonment of the family, at the end, 
the reader feels *good* on account of the lovely sense of resolution and 
success in the family's quest (diverted, but not derailed) for the American 
Dream.

Dr. Starr said that Dandelion deserved favorable comparison to Farewell to 
Manzanar, which is probably the best-known book about the WW II internment 
of Japanese-Americans. I believe that Dandelion will find an important 
place in the curriculum both because it is a distinctively insightful 
report on the internment experience, but because it is a comprehensive view 
of a family's experience before, during, AND after the 
internment.  Further, it is a literary jewel, with an immediacy gained from 
its present-tense narrative and from its extensive use of the author's 
father's haiku and stories told to the children (Kiyo Sato had eight 
brothers and sisters).

Anyway . . . you will enjoy the article, and I think you will enjoy the 
book immensely, as will your students.

In due time, I will follow up here with an actual review (or if Knowledge 
Quest gets its website caught up, my full review and some sidebars will be 
published there in the fall).

Mark my words: within a generation, graduate students will be writing 
dissertations about Dandelion Through the Crack  It is that good and that 
important as social history and as literature.

(By the way, the publisher's website for the book is 
www.DandelionThroughTheCrack.com. It includes readers' comments and links 
to internment- and civil-liberties-related websites, and will have the 
author's appearance schedule, reviews, and so on.)

Ken

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please note: All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law.
  You can prevent most e-mail filters from deleting LM_NET postings
  by adding LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU to your e-mail address book.
To change your LM_NET status, e-mail to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu
In the message write EITHER: 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET  2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL
3) SET LM_NET MAIL  4) SET LM_NET DIGEST  * Allow for confirmation.
 * LM_NET Help & Information: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/
 * LM_NET Archive: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/archive/
 * EL-Announce with LM_NET Select: http://elann.biglist.com/sub/
 * LM_NET Supporters: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/ven.html
 * LM_NET Wiki: http://lmnet.wikispaces.com/
--------------------------------------------------------------------