Mira and Baku
by Sara Truuvert (Author) Michelle Theodore (Illustrator)
With the help of a magical friend, a young girl searches for her missing father in this poignant story set during Japanese internment in World War II.
It’s a week until Mira’s birthday, and she’s getting worried. Where is Papa? He has never missed her birthday before. When Mira’s friend Baku, a creature from Japanese folklore, offers to help, they journey over farmlands and forests, mountains and river mouths, gathering clues to Papa’s whereabouts―clues that echo Mira’s memories and overheard conversations in the camp where she lives with Mama.
Lushly illustrated by up-and-coming illustrator Michelle Theodore, this tender, moving picture book by debut author Sara Truuvert explores the profound impacts of family separation and the different forms comfort can take for a child processing loss.
Further reading on Japanese internment and a note from the author add to readers’ understanding of this underrepresented period of history, making it an instant classic. For fans of Baseball Saved Us, Mira and Baku is an emotional exploration of the power of imagination and hope in difficult times.
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Review quotes
"In her premiere picture book, Mira and Baku, author Sara Truuvert has created an honest and sensitive story of a Japanese Canadian child imprisoned along with her family because of their race during the Second World War. With graceful prose, the author shares a pivotal and painful moment in Mira's life—it's her birthday, her father is absent, and she doesn't know why. As her birthday approaches and the pain and anxiety grows regarding her missing father, Mira turns to her love of nature in the rocks which she and her father have collected. And she turns, as well, to her trusted friend, Baku. Together Mira and Baku soar up and out of the impossible confines of their prison camp and into the freedom of imagination, searching for her father. The detailed and subtle illustrations by artist Michelle Theodore give us, like the story, a clear and delicate view into the harsh reality of an imprisoned child; from the beauty of small stones polished by a child's hand, to the reality of her prison camp, to the sweeping glory of the Canadian landscape. I highly recommend this poignant, splendid telling, in both words and art, of Mira's important story." —Matt Faulkner, author/illustrator of Gaijin: American Prisoner of War (recipient of the Asian/Pacific American Library Association Best Children's Book Award) and My Nest of Silence
SARA TRUUVERT is a Canadian author of Japanese-Estonian descent. She grew up in Toronto and now lives in Ottawa, where she writes everything from short fiction to poetry to science articles. Mira and Baku is her first picture book.
MICHELLE THEODORE is an illustrator born and raised under the prairie skies in Edmonton, Alberta. As a landlocked yonsei, she is often reminiscing about coastal summers with family, inspired by her times on beaches collecting sand dollars and eating homemade salmon jerky.
JUV051000 - Juvenile Fiction | Imagination & Play
JUV013000 - Juvenile Fiction | Family | General
JUV011020 - Juvenile Fiction | People & Places | United States - Asian American
World War, 1939-1945
JUVENILE FICTION / People & Places / United S
Japanese Canadians
Prisoners and prisons, Canadian
