{"product_id":"while-i-was-away-9780063017115","title":"While I Was Away","description":"\u003cem\u003e \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Farewell \u003c\/em\u003emeets Erin Entrada Kelly's \u003cem\u003eBlackbird Fly \u003c\/em\u003ein 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.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWhen 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. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn Japan, Waka struggles with reading and writing in \u003cem\u003ekanji\u003c\/em\u003e, 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. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIf 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?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Quill Tree Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 01\/26\/2021\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780063017115\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 320","brand":"Waka T. Brown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":38028053184693,"sku":"9780063017115","price":16.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_7f7a08f5-68b6-46b3-b5a0-c1f13ffabb8d.jpg?v=1609194426","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/while-i-was-away-9780063017115","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}