Missing in Action

Dirty. Lazy. Good-for-nothing. Jay Thacker is used to being called names because his dad is half Navajo. But things are different after he and his mother move to a small town in Utah to stay with his grandparents during World War II. Jay makes friends and earns money working the fields for his well-respected grandfather—but he encounters a problem in Ken, a fellow worker who’s from the nearby Japanese internment camp. Ken’s a Jap. And Jay’s dad, who’s been fighting for the Navy out in the Pacific, is missing in action. This understated and moving story from the author of the acclaimed Soldier Boys chronicles an unlikely friendship and gives readers a glimpse of the past that enlightens the present.