Maw Books

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Heroes by Ken Mochizuki and illustrated by Dom Lee is the story of a Donnie who wished his father wouldn’t drive him to school each morning.  It was embarrassing.  The other kids who walked would turn around and stare at them.  most of the time, they’d point their fingers and pretend to shoot them.  They were in the middle of the Vietnam war.

Being at school wasn’t any better, because as much as he wanted to just play football, the other kids only wanted to play one thing:  war.  The other kids were always the heroes and even brought their father’s medals to prove it.  As much as he wanted to play the hero as well, he was always relegated to one role, the enemy, simply because he was Asian, and therefore looked like the enemy.

Donnie always protested and tried to explain that both his father and Uncle had been in the army during the World War II.  “How could your dad and uncle be in our army?” they taunted.  “Yeah, there wasn’t anybody looking like you guys on our side.  If you can’t prove it, you better start hiding.”

Donnie could prove it.  He’d seen his father’s medals, cap, and uniform at home but always got into trouble when he looked at them.  Wanting to know why his father and uncle never spoke of the war at home, his Uncle replied, “Real heroes don’t brag.  They just do what they are supposed to do.”

It wasn’t until they saw Donnie being chased home from school under the taunts of “Rat-tat-tat-tat! Pow! Pow! Pow! You’re dead, Donnie!” that they realized how bad things were at school and that they had the power to prove to his friends that their family had as much American loyalty as anybody else.  They promised that they would fix everything for Donnie the next day after school.  Donnie hoped that they would come through in a big way and that he would no longer be the enemy, but rather a friend.

Heroes is recommended as a great teaching tool or introduction to the concept that about 50,000 Americans of Asian and Pacific Islander descent served in the armed forces during World War II.  According to the author’s note, most notably was the 442nd Regimental Combat team, an all Japanese American regiment that fought in Europe and became one of the most highly decorated units in U.S. Army history.

This is a book that I’ll be sharing with  my two boys.

Links of interest:  Ken is also the author of  Baseball Saved Us (reviewed here), Be Water, My Friend:  The Early Years of Bruce Lee (reviewed here)  and Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story (reviewed here), all of which are also illustrated by Dom Lee.  Also check out the Maw Books interview with Ken Mochizuki.
Genre:  Picture Book, Fiction.  Ages 4-8.
Publisher: Lee and Low Books.  March 1997
Paperback, 32 pages.
Heroes is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powells, and Amazon.

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