Barbed Wire Baseball

Written by Marissa Moss. Illustrated by Yuko Shimizu. As a boy, Kenichi "Zeni" Zenimura dreams of playing professional baseball, but everyone tells him he is too small. Yet he grows up to be a successful player, playing with Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig! When the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor in 1941, Zeni and his family are sent to Gila River War Relocation Center in Arizona, where people of Japanese ancestry are imprisoned without trials. Zeni brings the game of baseball to the camp, along with a sense of hope. This true story, set in a Japanese concentration camp during World War II, introduces children to a little-discussed part of American history. The book includes author and illustrator notes, archival photographs, and a bibliography. Paper: 39 pp.