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Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
The instant #1 New York Times bestseller!
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Refugee , Ground Zero , and Two Degrees comes this heart-pounding, inventive, and powerful new novel about the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor... as only Alan Gratz can tell it!
December 6, 1941: Best friends Frank and Stanley have it good. With their dads stationed at the Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii, the boys get to soak up the sunshine while writing and drawing their own comic books. World War II might be raging overseas, but so far America has stayed out of the fight. There's nothing to fear, right?
December 7th, 1941: Everything implodes.
Frank and Stanley are touring a battleship when Japanese planes zoom overhead, dropping bomb after bomb. As explosions roar and sailors screa, Frank and Stanley realize the unthinkable is happening: Japan is attacking America! The war has come to them.
Frantically, the boys struggle to find safety. But disaster and danger are everywhere--from torpedoes underwater to bullets on the beach... to the shocking cruelty that their friends and neightbors show Stanely. Because his mom is Japanese-American, Stanely is suddenly seen as the "enemy." And Frank, who is white, cannot begin to understand what his friend is now facing.
If the boys make it through this infamous day, can their friendship--and their dreams--survive? Or has everything they know been destroyed?
Told with the immediacy, high-stakes action, and inventive storytelling that make Alan Gratz ( Refugee , Ground Zero ) one of today's biggest authors, this riveting look at the attack on Pearl Harbor explores themes of prejudice, power, and what it truly means to be a hero.
Plus: The book ends with an all-original, 10-page black & white comic that brings to life the comic book idea that Frank and Stanley brainstorm in the novel. The comic is written by Alan Gratz and illustrated by Judit Tondora.
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Set during the attack on Pearl Harbor that drew the U.S. into WWII, this tensely wrought, propulsive historical novel by Gratz (Two Degrees) centers the compelling friendship between 13-year-old aspiring writer Frank McCoy and illustrator Stanley Summers, who are brainstorming their own comic book characters. The pair live in the seemingly idyllic Ford Island Naval Air Station in Pearl Harbor, where their fathers are stationed. Frank harbors secret anxiety surrounding his perceived lack of courage, especially evident when he avoids helping Stanley confront bullies, which prompts Stanley to ask, "How do you think you can write about heroes if you can't be one yourself?" These paralyzing fears come into stark relief when, while the pair are on a battleship tour, Japanese planes begin bombing unsuspecting military targets. After diving from a sinking ship, the friends struggle to reach home amid violence, chaos, and death. Though the novel's tone is sometimes uneven and text can read as didactic, Gratz sensitively handles characters' suspicion of Stanley surrounding his Japanese American heritage, and offers a gripping, well-researched account of courage and friendship in this powerful depiction of American racism and imprisonment. Back matter includes a comic book created by Frank and Stanley and an author's note. Ages 8--12. (Feb.)
Booklist Review
Pearl Harbor, December 6, 1941. It's another day in paradise for white 13-year-old Frank McCoy and his best friend, Japanese American Stanley Summers, united by their love of the comics they create together. For Frank, though, the perfection is compromised by a closely guarded secret: he's been afraid of everything since what he calls The Incident (he was mauled by a dog and has the scars to prove it). The next day, December 7, a seaman invites the boys to tour the decommissioned battleship Utah. They eagerly accept and are aboard when paradise becomes hell as a wave of Japanese planes attacks, destroying the entire American fleet in the harbor. In a thrilling, white-knuckle set piece, Gratz (Captain America: The Ghost Army, 2023) recreates the attack and Frank's and Stanley's harrowing experience of it. Just surviving tests the boys' mettle, as Frank swallows his fears and rescues a drowning seaman, becoming, at least for a while, a hero. Gratz does his usual splendid job of creating the visceral drama of battle alongside fully realized characters. He handles the theme of heroism well, while not straying into the didactic, and is especially good at depicting the enduring friendship of the two boys as, together, they experience the date that will live in infamy.