During World War II, Tama is sent to live in an incarceration camp in the desert. All Japanese Americans from the West Coast - elderly people, children, babies - now live in camps like Minidoka. To be who she is has become a crime, and Tama doesn't know when or if she will ever leave.
Trying not to think of the life she once had, she works in the incarceration camp's tiny library, taking solace in pages bursting with colour and light, love and fairness. And she isn't the only one. George waits each morning by the door, his arms piled with books checked out the day before.
As their friendship grows, Tama wonders: Can anyone possibly read so much? Is she the reason George comes to the library every day? Maggie Tokuda-Hall and Yas Imamura's beautifully illustrated, elegant love story features a photo of the real Tama and George - the author's grandparents - and an unflinching and necessary afterword that helps readers to learn more about a time in history that continues to resonate.