BOOK REVIEW: Tallgrass

On February 19, 1942 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. This order led to the assembly and incarceration of over 120,00 persons of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast. These American citizens were forced from their homes to live in detention camps under very primitive conditions . Sandra Dallas uses this part of our history for her book TALLGRASS.

Thirteen-year-old Rennie lives on a sugar beet farm near the small town of Ellis, Colorado. She is in town with her father when the first busloads of Japanese arrive from California to live in the camp, Tallgrass, built near her home. The nasty remarks of some of the townspeople do not make sense to her. Nor does the fact that her father has to walk away from an angry confrontation when he goes to the defense of these newcomers.

Rennie herself has to learn to walk away from fights at school when her father hires several of the young men from Tallgrass to help with the planting of his beets. Rennie’s brother, along with most of the young men of the community, are serving in the military and the farmers need help. Having these “foreigners” in the community does not sit well with some of the people and when a young girl is raped and murdered the blame falls on the young men working for Rennie’s family.

TALLGRASS blends an uncomfortable part of American history with the coming of age of a young girl, a murder, and maybe some lessons in honesty and being human. Full of complex characters and some gritty scenes, the book never loses a touch of innocence, due in most part to the age of the narrator and the fact that it is told from her viewpoint.

The father/daughter relationship in TALLGRASS may remind the reader of To Kill a Mockingbird. Also, Rennie, like Scout, learns that bad things can happen to good people and that people are not always what they seem to be. The theme may be similar, but TALLGRASS stands on its own laurels.

Sandra Dallas is definitely one of my favorite authors and you will find her books mentioned in POV quite often. She is not afraid to tackle sensitive subjects with honesty and develops characters that draw the reader into the story until the fact that this might be a new way to see something out of your comfort zone is forgotten...and there is always someone to root for--- a very important element in a book.

I have enjoyed many of Ms. Dallas’ books, but TALLGRASS will stand out. The author says that she was inspired in part by the comparisons with Guantanamo Bay, but as I was reading it, I could not help but notice the similar acts of prejudice resulting in violence in the current news.