SuitabookDolls of war
Shirley Parenteau
- Reading
- You could read alongside your child and pause when the community reacts to the doll, making space to discuss how a person’s identity or belongings can be judged during wartime.
- Themes
- Loyalty and belonging: Macy treasures a Japanese doll as a link to her mother while neighbours demand its destruction after the United States enters the war. The plot sets up a tension between Macy’s personal bond and pressure to demonstrate loyalty to America; it does not establish the story’s final judgement.
- Community prejudice: White townsfolk are described as pleased when Japanese-American neighbours are rounded up by the government, while some want Miss Tokyo burned. These actions show prejudice within the story’s community; the available details do not establish how the novel evaluates or challenges it overall.
- Grief and family strain: Macy’s mother has died; she writes letters to her mother in Miss Tokyo’s persona. Her father is described as distanced by grief, with a difficult truth left untold. The story connects Macy’s bond with the doll to bereavement and family strain, but the full circumstances and their resolution remain unclear.
- Worth knowing
- The story includes a recently deceased mother, a brother enlisting in the Navy, distressing wartime news, neighbours calling for a doll to be burned, and Japanese-American neighbours being rounded up by the government.