We Are Not Free is a novel written by Traci Chee and it is about a group of second-generation Japanese American teenagers whose lives are forever changed during the mass imprisonments of Japanese American citizens during World War II. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The U.S. government issues an order that would effectively force all Japanese American citizens living on the West Coast to live in concentration camps throughout the U.S. The teens throughout the book learn to persevere through hard times but they also learn to love and cherish each other. One aspect of the book I really liked and enjoyed was the way the stories of all the teenagers were told. Each chapter was told from the perspective of different teenagers and this would continue throughout the story. It was easy to connect to these characters and understand the whole story because of this and it made the story much more interesting. Another thing I liked about the book was how emotions and feelings were evenly distributed. Each chapter would bring forth new emotions, problems, moments, and feelings which added to the story very well. In certain parts of the story, you would never want it to end and in other parts, you would want to keep flipping the pages to find out what happened next. This made the book a pleasure to read. Lastly, I think that the morals the book taught and the main message it told to me were very impactful and easy to apply to my world today. One thing I found was somewhat difficult was the way the stories were told. Although the different perspectives in each chapter contributed a lot to the story, they also made it hard to care about and focus on other characters. Some of the stories from each teen’s perspective were more touching and impactful than others which made me favor and focus on certain characters while ignoring or forgetting about other characters. I believe this book is a perfect book for all young adults and fans of drama and historical fiction. It has a nice balanced amount of happiness, sadness, suspense, love, and everything else. The book conveys the main message strongly throughout the book which makes it much easier to read and understand.

Overall I would rate this book a 4.5 out of 5.

Theresa Maritato was back for another thoughtful and creative community service program for shelter pets. She brought all the supplies needed to make beautifully painted picture frames with flower and butterfly accents.

Syosset Public Library has the most artistically talented teens!

Click on any picture to see the full image.

This past Thursday, teens helped the Children’s department with their fun STEAM program Ozobot Buddies.

Ozobot is one of the smallest programmable robots in the world, measuring 2.54 cm in diameter and height but equipped with a powerful brain.

Children were told to map the story of their favorite fairy tales using an Ozobot. They used markers to give the Ozobots commands.