Waka T. Brown

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

California

The Farewell meets Erin Entrada Kelly's Blackbird Fly in this empowering middle grade memoir from debut author Waka T. Brown, who takes readers on a journey to 1980s Japan, where she was sent as a child to reconnect to her family's roots. When twelve-year-old Waka's parents suspect she can't understand the basic Japanese they speak to her, they make a drastic decision to send her to Tokyo to live for several months with her strict grandmother. Forced to say goodbye to her friends and what would have been her summer vacation, Waka is plucked from her straight-A-student life in rural Kansas and flown across the globe, where she faces the culture shock of a lifetime. In Japan, Waka struggles with reading and writing in kanji, doesn't quite mesh with her complicated and distant Obaasama, and gets made fun of by the students in her Japanese public-school classes. Even though this is the country her parents came from, Waka has never felt more like an outsider. If she's always been the "smart Japanese girl" in America but is now the "dumb foreigner" in Japan, where is home...and who will Waka be when she finds it?

While I Was Away

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Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

New York





Named one of New York Public Library's & Bank Street's Best Books of the Year!

The Farewell meets Erin Entrada Kelly's Blackbird Fly in this empowering middle grade memoir from debut author Waka T. Brown, who takes readers on a journey to 1980s Japan, where she was sent as a child to reconnect to her family's roots.

When twelve-year-old Waka's parents suspect she can't understand the basic Japanese they speak to her, they make a drastic decision to send her to Tokyo to live for several months with her strict grandmother. Forced to say goodbye to her friends and what would have been her summer vacation, Waka is plucked from her straight-A-student life in rural Kansas and flown across the globe, where she faces the culture shock of a lifetime.

In Japan, Waka struggles with reading and writing in kanji, doesn't quite mesh with her complicated and distant Obaasama, and gets made fun of by the students in her Japanese public-school classes. Even though this is the country her parents came from, Waka has never felt more like an outsider.

If she's always been the "smart Japanese girl" in America but is now the "dumb foreigner" in Japan, where is home...and who will Waka be when she finds it

Category - Fiction / Young Adult

Format - Paperback

Condition - Good

Listed - 10 months ago

Views - 4

Ships From - California

Est. Publication Date - Dec 2021

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While I Was Away

ISBN: 9780063017122

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Category - Fiction / Young Adult

Format - Paperback

Condition - Good

Listed - 10 months ago

Views - 4

Ships From - California

Est. Publication Date - Dec 2021

Additional Information

While I Was Away

ISBN: 9780063017122

Publisher Description

Tags

While I Was Away

By:

$1.50

Meet the seller

Discover more

While I Was Away

By: Waka T. Brown

More from this seller

Additional titles by Waka T. Brown

'While I Was Away' readers also enjoyed:

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