Fiction by Catherine Ryan Hyde
Fourteen-year-old Steven feels like an outcast in his small California farming community; he's not like the other kids, or even like the people in his own family, because he's attracted to boys and not girls. He finally finds a group of non-judgmental boys he feels accepted by and takes a camping trip into the mountains with Nick, Ollie, and Suki.
The thing is, the weekend trip begins on December 6, 1941, and Suki is Japanese. The four boys come back to a world where everything has been changed: there has been an attack on Pearl Harbor and the US has been plunged into war. Steven feels even more oppressed in his tiny hometown now that racism as well as homophobia is a problem. Plus his friends are all in trouble: Suki might be sent to an interment camp, Ollie is almost old enough to be drafted, and Nick is being accused of a crime he didn't commit.
This was good character story with a lot to think about. I did feel like the author was trying to force a contemporary issue into a historical setting, though.
I also read recently by this author: Jumpstart the World
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