The WebQuest site for

Ken Mochizuki

 

 

 

Ken Mochizuki has lived in Seattle, Washington, for nearly all his life. He has also worked with words in one way or another for much of his life. Before he began writing children's books, he was an actor and later a journalist. Today he gives presentations to schools and others on his work as a children's book author.

 

His experience as an American of Asian descent has greatly influenced all of his works.  His examination of growing up Asian-American in Seattle is personally drawn.  The search for identity established in Beacon Hill Boys illustrates the frustration of being a teenager and an outsider in 1972 Seattle.  The hero and three friends share frustrations and angry reactions to what they know should be and the reality.

 

 

 

Biography

                From Houghton Mifflin's Eduplace        www.eduplace.com/kids/hmr/mtai/mochizuki.html

                On Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story; Ken Mochizuki Book Talk:                                                                                                             http://www.leeandlow.com/booktalk/mochizuk.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                   

 

Titles By Ken Mochizuki

 

 

 

And now

The Books of Ken Mochizuki

 

PASSAGE TO FREEDOM: THE SUGIHARA STORY

by Ken Mochizuki

illustrated by Dom Lee

afterword by Hiroki Sugihara

 

The true story of Chiune Sugihara, the "Japanese Schindler," who, with his family's encouragement, saved thousands of Jews in Lithuania during World War II.  Passage to Freedom was Mochizuki's first attempt to write children's nonfiction. He approached the story as a journalist would, gathering all the facts of the story first. Then he had to figure out how he could tell the story from the point of view of a five-year-old boy. The more he worked on the book, the more he realized that he needed to tell the story in the first person, as if he were that young boy himself.

 

Themes: Holocaust, History, Fathers & Sons, Courage, Asians/Asian Americans

 Jewish Virtual Library http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Holocaust/sugihara.html

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Websites:

http://www.ushmm.org/                      http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/index.php?ModuleId=10005594

 Ken Mochizuki Book Talk: http://www.leeandlow.com/booktalk/mochizuk.html

 

 A FEW AWARDS

ABA Children's Bookseller's Choice, American Book Association

ALA Notable Children's Book, American Library Association

Books to Read Aloud with Children of All Ages, Bank Street College of Education

BULLETIN Blue Ribbon Award

Children's Bookseller's Choices, Association of Booksellers for Children

Children's Books Mean Business, Children's Book Council (CBC)

Children's Crown Award, National Christian School Association, Master list

Editors' Choice, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONCILE

Jewish Book Award, Finalist

NCTE Notables in Language Arts, National Council of Teachers of English

Notable Books for Children, SMITHSONIAN magazine

Notable Books for a Global Society, International Reading Association (IRA)

Notable Children's Book of Jewish Content, Association of Jewish Libraries

Notable Children's Trade Books in the Field of Social Studies, National Council of Social Stuides and Children's Book Council (NCSS/CBC)

Not Just for Children Anymore Selection, Children's Book Council (CBC)

Parents' Choice Award, Winner

PARENTING magazine Reading Magic Award, Winner

"Pick of the Lists," AMERICAN BOOKSELLERS

Society of School Librarians International Best Books, K-6 Social Studies

South Carolina Children's Book Award, Master List

"Starred Review," PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

Teachers' Choices, International Reading Association (IRA)

 

BASEBALL SAVED US

By Ken Mochizuki

Illustrated by Dom Lee

Baseball Saved Us is the story of a young Japanese-American boy in a US internment camp during World War II. Life in the internment camp is boring and depressing. As the draining effect on families of being uprooted and imprisoned in camp becomes apparent, his father organizes a baseball tournament for the boys. The families pull together to create the bases and teams, complete with uniforms, out of the prison material they have for bedding. A pivotal moment comes when his anger at the unfairness of being in camp, always watched by prison guards, gives him the strength to hit a home run. Eventually the people of the camp are released and allowed to go home. But of course home no longer exists, as they lost all their possessions. On the school playground, once again he is faced with prejudice because he is Japanese. In a recap of the camp experience he hits a home run, and is appreciated by his team mates. The illustrations are dark and sepiatone, lending to the somber and realistic tone of the text. The young boy's determination is a great example for the reader's, even as the lesson of the destructive nature of prejudice is presented in very human terms with which children can relate.

 

Themes: Japanese Americans, Internment Camps, World War II, Baseball, Prejudice

 

World War II Japanese Internment  www.geocities.com/Athens/8420/main.html   

 Janese Internment Camps: Tule & Topaz: www.lib.utah.edu/spc/photo/9066/9066.htm       

Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, NY http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/        

 

                                                                                          

                HEROES                                                                                                                                                       BEACON HILL BOYS             
By Ken Mochizuki                                                                                                                              By Ken Mochizuki

Illustrated by Dom Lee

A Japanese American boy learns about heroism                                                             In 1972 Seattle, a teenager in a

from his father and uncle, who served in the                                                                    Japanese- American family struggles

U.S. Army during  World War II.                                                                                        for his own identity, along with a                                                                                                                                                                     group of three friends who share his
Themes: War, Prejudice, Heroism,                                                                                     anger and confusion.

Fitting In, Japanese Americans,
Fathers & Sons

 

 

 

 

Questions about Books

By Ken Mochizuki

 

Ken Mochizuki feels that Passage to Freedom is about these questions:

            "Does one do what is considered 'correct' at the time? Or does one do what is 'right' for all time?"

With a partner, think of other situations in which people have had to decide what action was right. How do you think you would respond in such situations?

 

After reading Baseball Saved Us do you think the United States government did the “correct” thing” intering Japanese Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbor? 

As a group of three, consider what could be done by the U.S. government for the safety of the country.

Can connections be made to the war on terrorism?  The War in Iraq?

 

In HEROES Ken Mochizuki writes about the experiences of Japanese American soldiers during the Second World War.  After reading Baseball Saved Us how would you feel if you were a Japanese American soldier fighting overseas while your family was in an internment camp.

 

What connections can be made between Baseball Saved Us, Passage to Freedom, & Heroes?