I really enjoyed the book The Best Bad Thing by: Yoshiko Uchida. It is about a young Japanese American girl named Rinko. Rinko just knows that her summer will be ruined because her parents have asked her to spend the last part of her summer helping Mrs. Hata. Mrs. Hata is a widowed friend of her parents' that Rinko has found to be a little crazy. By the end of the summer, Rinko changes her mind about the situation and finds it to be the best bad thing that has happened to her. She learns a valuable lesson - people are not always what they seem to be and that bad things can turn into the best things.
The story's setting was set in California in the 1930's around the time that a lot of Japanese immigrants were coming to America in hopes of finding fortunes. It shows the cultural differences and illustrates the prejudices that the Japanese culture was facing in America at that time. It not only portrays a great message to readers to accept others and that bad things can turn into good things but it also provides them with an insight into history and diversity.
I think I enjoyed this book because of the insight it gave me into that time period. I was able to see how the Japanese culture lived and interacted with one another. It was an easy read and held very many surprising events.
Books of Yoshiko Uchida also include:
Journey to Topaz
Jar of Dreams
The Sea of Gold: And Other Tales From Japan
The Birthday Visitor
Sumi and the Goat and the Tokyo Express
Desert Exile: The Uprooting of a Japanese-American Family
Takao and Grandfather
Picture Bride: A Novel
The Invisible Thread: An Autobiography
Picture Bride: A Novel
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