Eleven-year-old Rinko lives in California during the Depression. She discovers the nature of racism and the prejudice against people born in Japan like her parents and aunt. (9-13 years)

"An ingenious simplicity and grace mark the first-person telling of the story of eleven-year-old Rinko and her Japanese family in Berkeley, California. Times are hard for everyone in 1935, but being Japanese is for Rinko an added burden. . . . Compared with the many worldly-wise contemporary book heroines, Rinko in her guilelessness is genuine and refreshing, and her worries and concerns seem wholly natural, honest and convincing".--The Horn Book.