Flags by Maxine Trottier

This book is about a young girl who visits her grandmother for the summer. Her grandmother's neighbor, Mr. Hiroshi, has a beautiful garden and pond that she admires. When Mr. Hiroshi is sent to a Japanese relocation camp during WWII, the young girl states that she will take care of the garden and pond. When she notices that Mr. Hiroshi's house has been sold she transfers the fish in the pond to the river and digs up two iris bulbs (called flags) to plant in her backyard when she returns home.

This is a great example of an historical fiction book. Japanese relocation camps are real history but the characters in this story are fictional. Having a lesson about WWII and relocation camps can be a bit heavy for children in lower grades. Even though this is a picture book, I would read it to older grades to help accompany a lesson. Children don't really have to know anything about WWII and relocation camps to understand the story. The book is about a young girl helping her neighbor out while he happened to be sent away. The main focus isn't on the relocation camps.

The illustrator, Paul Morin, paints beautiful pictures in this story. I like them because they are paintings that I could imagine being displayed at an art museum as opposed to just being in children's books. He adds a lot of colors and is very detailed. It almost looks like a photograph instead of a painting.