| Title | : | Early Sunday Morning: the Pearl Harbor Diary of Amber Billows, Hawaii, 1941 (Dear America) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0439555132 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780439555135 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 160 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1998 |
Early Sunday Morning: the Pearl Harbor Diary of Amber Billows, Hawaii, 1941 (Dear America) Reviews
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TW//
“This year we have soldiers instead of Santas.”
Early Sunday Morning is one of the most heartbreaking yet important Dear America stories. It captures in detail what the Pearl Harbor bombing was like for civilains and it touches on how the bombing impacted the Japanese people who lived in Hawaii. It was challenging to read and there were several moments where I almost started crying, but it was such a good read.
I feel like American schooling (at least the schools I attended) brushed over Pearl Harbor and everything that happeed there. My schools only covered Hitler and everything that happened in Europe during World War 2. This book helped fill in the gaps of what I didn’t know about World War 2 and it made me feel like I was there during the bombing. It was very intense but it was also phenomenal.
My only complaint about this book was that it wasn’t long enough. I feel like it could’ve and should’ve covered at least a month or two after the bombing, but I understand why it ended where it did since the reasoning behind the journal format was that Amber wrote in a different journal for each place that she lived at and Hawaii was the place that she lived at for the shortest period of time.
I know that this book is intended for kids, but I think the content matter might be hard for a lot of kids to process and I think adults can get a lot out of this book. If you want to know more about the Pearl Harbor bombing and you want to read more of an “account” of what happened as opposed to reading history textbooks, this is a great place to start. -
I think I would have enjoyed this book more had it been a 'real' diary of a girl who lived on Oahu during the attack on Pearl Harbor. But since this was a fictional diary, I had a hard time loving it. I feel the book gives us a possible taste of what life might have been like during this time, but the epilogue of these fictional characters, which includes later suicides, deaths by tragic car accidents, and babies being orphaned, all long after 1941, seemed contrived. A fictional 'diary' of an event I maybe could have gone for, but the added closing wrap up just made it too much.
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Feeling very conflicted by this book! On one hand, I really appreciate that it is written in true, diary-style (driven by description rather than dialogue). Not many Dear Americas that I've read have accomplished this realistic style, so I appreciate the thought and time author Barry Denenberg put into telling the story this way.
On the other hand, some of the characters don't feel real to me. I didn't realize this until I finished reading, but Denenberg also wrote One Eye Laughing, the Other Eye Weeping, my least favorite book thus far in the Dear America series.
In both books, Denenberg struggles to capture the complex thought processes and emotions of his young female characters. Sometimes they focus on, write about, and think things you wouldn't expect from young girls. Other times they quickly dismiss a topic that would likely be of utmost importance to a young girl.
Despite some flaws, the book is well researched. It taught me some things about the attacks on Pearl Harbor and response from the U.S. that I didn't know (blackout regulations, government-issued gas masks, grocery shortages, etc.) These were interesting things to read about within the context of World War II, given that we've recently experienced similar restrictions and regulations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Overall, it's not an awful read, even though the characters are a little lacking.
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Note: Read in elementary or middle school
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Really good book but incredibly Sad.
One thing that disappointed me, was how short the book was compared to other Dear America Books.
There was mention of suicide in the book, and some curse words. I felt that the book was incredibly rushed, Especially the Epilogue. -
In this during the beginning of the this diary, Amber Billows tells the readers that she is moving and feels upset because she has to leave her friends. When I had to move to Shanghai from Sweden I also felt upset that I had to leave my friends.
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This book was very good. I don't like historical fiction, but this is a quick book/diary from a little girl at the time of The attack on Pearl Harbor.
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This was an amazing look into what families would have gone through during the attack on Pearl Harbor, l have to admit this book left me crying at the end.
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This was one of my favorite middle grade historical fiction diaries as a kid and I really loved it at the time, but I was a little bit disappointed by it as an adult. Compared to the other diaries like this I've reread in the past couple years, it just didn't feel as strong. It felt like it lacked the depth that a lot of them have.
I think part of the reason is that this book is so short and so fast. It's only about 130 pages of diary and doesn't even start in Hawaii. The main character is only in Hawaii a couple of weeks before Pearl Harbor, and only a couple of weeks after. It doesn't feel like she had enough time to set down roots or meet friends or get invested in Hawaii as a place. I think the whole thing needed to be slowed down. I do think this book is fairly shorter than a number of the other diaries in this series.
I also wasn't a big fan of the epilogue. The epilogues of these books usually wrap them up and give an idea of what could have happened in people's lives of the time (in a child friendly way, of course), but this one just seemed unnecessarily depressing and pointless. It felt like a bit of a sucker punch. I don't mind a good depressing ending because sometimes they add so much depth, but this one felt cheap.
I dunno, it's probably good for kids but one of those books that doesn't hold up as well for adults. I certainly loved it as a child. I just wished I loved my reread of it as much as I did some of the other diaries. -
Amber's dad is a journalist whose paper requires frequent moves. This family had the experience of residing in Pearl Harbor during the Japanese Attack. Her mom was a nurse, so Amber accompanied her to care for the wounded.
It is amazing how closely the movie Pearl Harbor follows this first hand account. Yes, they had to steriize Coke bottles for blood. Yes, nurses were sent out with lipstick to determine which wounded men would be admitted to the hospital and which were not going to survive their injuries.
I can put myself in Pearl Harbor accounts because my dad was a seventeen year old sailor, who had the good luck to have a "liberty" night on December 6. As in the movie, my dad was asleep in a military vehicle on the beach when the attack began. He told me the story many times, of his buddy racing back to their ship. The vehicle was straffed by Japanese gunfire, driver hit, ran over boulder, and overturned. Dad was thrown out and woke up as his head wound was being stitched up. What I vividly recall, is him telling me that you can feel your skin pop when the needle punctures, and the thread as it is slides to reclose an opening. I guess pain killers were used for more serious injuries. -
Wow. This one was quite short and very sad too. I felt like I didn't have time to get attached to the characters and it left so many loose ends that I flt a little bit cheated. "Is that it? Really?" Still, there was some interesting historical information about how the people reacted in the immediate aftermath of the attack, but overall this book was just too darn short for me to have much of a reaction.
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I read this book for story research only. I have been researching the attack on Pearl Harbor for *cough* writing purposes *cough cough*. I was starting to get tired of text books and such, so when I saw this book on my shelf I was like "Perfect! An actually story about a girl with eye witness account of the bombing! Now I can get a feel for what I kinda want my story to be like..." So yeah, it helped me some.
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I have been wanting to read this book for a long time--since I bought a copy at Half-Price before we moved several years ago! Pearl Harbor has always been a fascinating event to me and it seemed fitting to read this after listening to On the Horizon by Lois Lowry a week prior. I read the majority of this book in two sittings--it was quick, easy and engaging. I think Amber's diary entries as a twelve year old probably represented one of the most realistic thoughts for her age I've read in the Dear America series so far! I really liked how the diary was presented as just another move for the Billows family, none of them ever expecting to get mixed up in the tragedy that they did. I appreciated Denenberg demonstrating how scary and uncertain those post-bombing days were for everyone in Hawaii. There were definitely some scenes that reminded me a little eerily of some things we've experienced during Covid-19. Yet, I think that just goes to show that we have more in common with our ancestors than we realize. We all live through scary times, no matter how different they are, and we all must be brave.
My one complaint was how easily Amber was able to leave Hawaii and treat it like it was all just some horrible nightmare. I understand her sentiments, but thought she would have had more bittersweet feelings about leaving. I also found the epilogue to be short and lacking in the details I was actually curious about concerning Amber's life during the repercussions of the Pearl Harbor event.
The most powerful scene in this book, one that I think will haunt me long after I move on to other books, is the one in the hospital when Amber is helping her mom attend to the wounded after the bombing. There is a line of people waiting to donate blood to the victims who were so badly wounded, they may die without the donation. Most of the people in this line, waiting to donate blood to wounded Americans, are Japanese immigrants. Japanese. -
As the daughter of a newspaper reporter, Amber Billows has had to move many times in her twelve years, but she's never really gotten used to having to pack up and move on short notice. When her father announces that the family will be moving to Hawaii, Amber wishes she could be part of a family that didn't have to move so very much. She's adjusted to life in Washington, D.C., even if she hates the weather there, and has a best friend. Even though she didn't want to move, Amber can't help loving Hawaii, a beautiful paradise with perfect weather year round. But it's the fall of 1941, and though many people in the United States are isolationists, opposed to entering the war, soon the country may not have a choice. Amber is horrified when the beauty and peace of her tropical home are shattered early in the morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941, a day that will never be forgotten. Although this was not the best Dear America book, and was rather short, I would still recommend it to all fans of the series.
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I thought that this was a fairly good book. The storyline was intriguing and there were many historical facts about Pearl Harbor to learn from. However, it seemed that the book was short; the font size was made large to cover more pages.
Reading this fictional diary will give you insight of a young girl's life when Pearl Harbor was destroyed. You'll see a little bit about how it could have been after the tragedy... the darkness, the precautions, the rules, and brave families.
I'm glad I took the time to read the story. -
I'm re-reading some books from the Dear America series for nostalgia's sake since I now have more historical context than I did as a child. This book was short and seemed too convenient! I wish it had been written about a person who lived in Hawaii for a longer time. It had good historical details worked in, but it could've had even more. I wish Amber hadn't moved to Hawaii only one month before Pearl Harbor and moved away one month later. It was too short, and gosh that epilogue was terribly depressing!
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This book is about a girl named Amber Billows. She and her family experienced the pearl harbor bombing. Now the United states government is protecting everyone for another attack. Now Amber has to live her life in fear until the war is over. What I learned about this book is how cautious everyone was during the war. I thought this book was very interesting.
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Early Sunday Morning sheds a new, younger light on the Pearl Harber experiance. It is written in diary format of a young girl living at Pearl Harber before the attack. If you're like me and enjoy history, then you'll enjoy this.
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Violet's 2009-2010 reading page:
http://happyheartsmom.typepad.com/swe... -
I truly hope there's no more books in this series by Denenberg. Another annoying girl, more bad writing. Please let this be the last one.
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Early Sunday Morning (Pearl Harbor) / 0-439-32874-8
Clocking in at approximately 130 pages and fairly large print, "Early Sunday Morning" can be finished by late Sunday afternoon. In a matter of a few short pages, Amber's journalist family is swept protesting to their new assignment in Hawaii, followed by a few quick jotted notes about Hawaii history and culture, mostly gleaned from Amber's encyclopedia. More lavish treatment is given to various dinner parties where American officers expound foolishly on the unlikelihood of a Japanese attack, all of which is very interesting, but is not explored very deeply.
The actual attack, when it occurs, is handled well. Amber and her brother construct a pillow fort in the living room - a meaningless gesture, she admits, but one which makes her feel slightly safer - and huddle together, convinced that they will die at any moment. This is a nice touch and a decent reminder to those of us who tend to see the event as "merely" affecting the ships attacked - the surrounding population had no way of knowing how confined the attack would or would not eventually be. Afterward, measures are taken: like the limiting of radio and night lights to prevent 'signaling' the Japanese troops. Amber's family builds a bomb shelter, albeit a poorly constructed one, and procure several poorly fitted gas masks.
Just as things are starting to get interesting, however, the book grinds to a sudden halt. The book had begun, briefly, to hint at the anti-Japanese sentiment that caused so many innocent Japanese-Americans to be rounded up into illegal camps and stripped of their possessions and belongings, but this dead-ends unsatisfactorily. Frustratingly, the author seems to hint that the one arrested person in the novel most definitely had pro-Japan sentiments, and therefore probably really was a collaborator.
This book is too short and too flimsy an approach to the subject matter to warrant the high price that the hardcover is asking. My recommendation is to skip "Early Sunday Morning" and buy "My Secret War" instead - another Dear America book that covers World War II and Pearl Harbor, but covers it in far more detail and integrity.
~ Ana Mardoll -
Actual rating, 3 stars
Thoughts and Plot
Early Sunday Morning is probably the shortest Dear America I have read so far. The actual story/diary entries is only about 129 pages long. That said, it's pretty packed with happenings for a book so short. It covers moving to Hawaii, the meeting of a few friends, the bombing, how crowded and limited the hospitals were, what people were expected to do (gas masks, blackouts, bomb shelters, painting buildings, etc), and then the announcement of the Billow's family moving once again.
Very short book. You barely get to know your 'host' before she is bidding you farewell. As usual though, the book contains a short epilogue, historical notes and pictures. The epilogue is just barely over a page long, not really covering too much of what became of everyone in Amber's family. Doesn't even give her husband a name, or say if she got a sister or a brother, where her parents went, what her brother did. It was a sorry excuse for an epilogue really. A paragraph for Lieutenant Lockhart (who no one really cared too much about I think), and a paragraph and a bit for Karme and her daughter. Amber got maybe a sentence or two in comparison. The epilogue is half the fun, because not all books tell you where your favorite character's life went, so it was quite a disappointment. Between the shortness of the book and the epilogue, I'm afraid it lost a whole star for rating. So much more could have been done.
In Conclusion
Short and to the point is how I'd describe this book. Because it was so short it moves along at a good clip. Unfortunately, the shortness also leaves out things that help you get to know your narrator as a person as well as the relationships she (or sometimes he) has with other people. These side effects brought down the over all rating.
Age range: middle school and up
Content: nothing too concerning. A person does die that Amber was talking to, but it is not a graphic death by any means.
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Bleh. For such a short book this was quite a slog. Its brevity really limited the amount of characterization and historical detail it could have, making it feel dull and rushed. Outside of the Pearl Harbor attack and its aftermath, the historical detail is pretty much limited to celebrity name-dropping(Walter Winchell, Benny Goodman, Bette Davis...). The epilogue is by far the worst one I can remember from this series. It starts out by saying how a minor character ended up, and practically skimmed right over the main character, Amber. She got married, adopted a kid, and that's basically all we are told. I, for one, would like to know if she ever took the trouble to sit herself down and spend five minutes writing back to her friend on the mainland. Amber acknowledges that she's really bad at writing back to people, but when she is a middle-class schoolgirl with no responsibilities outside of homework, that just makes her seem like a really lazy friend who can't be bothered to keep up a simple correspondence.
I think the problem with this book versus the others of the series is that most of the others, while they record some important event or era, are character-driven. The stories are built around one character and their perspective on things, and even if some crisis occurs the story focuses not so much on the event directly, but how it affects the main character and their loved ones. Early Sunday Morning doesn't seem to do this. It feels like it was written with the sole purpose of telling about the Pearl Harbor attack, and Amber was just the catalyst for recounting this event. There is nothing wrong with just writing a nonfiction book about Pearl Harbor, and I think this is what Denenberg should have done in the first place.
There is nothing here that justifies the diary format or provides any atmosphere. I feel sort of bad for giving this such a low rating(perhaps some feeling of nostalgic obligation?) but I truly can't remember enjoying any part of it. Skip this one and read My Secret War instead. -
I just got done reading the book EARLY SUNDAY MORNING: THE PEARL HARBOR DIARY OF AMBER BILLOWS. The book is written by Denenberg, Barry. The story is set in 1941 in Hawaii,pearl harbor, and Amber's house. The main characters are Amber Billows, Andy Billows, and the japenese.
i was looking in the section of history and i come upon this book and realized my grandparents were alive then, so I thought it would be interesting to read something they was alive to experienced.
Amber and her family has to move again, her father is a journalist and move to place to place. Amber thinks Hawaii is a "different planet", Amber soon makes friends with American Japenese girl. They have totally different backgrounds. They have been getting reports of warnings that japan is going to strike Pearl Harbor. Amber and her mom see themselves working in a hospital trying to save everyone they can.
I thought the ending was really good! My favorite part in the book is when she meets Kame, the japanese and american girl. They instantly click and become such great friends. Kame ad Amber have nearly the same personality, Amber likes to hear stories or facts about Kame.
The book was decent. I like the fact that it had a seek of adventure in it. Anyone that likes history or adventure would love this book. A similar book would be MY SECRET WAR: THE WORD WAR ll OF MADELINE BECK, LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK 1941 by Mary Pope Osborne. A lot of these books are from the Dear America Series. -
This book is good for students who are interested in how life was like in 1941, focusing on a family who moves to Hawaii during the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The Billows family is your typical family. Dad is a reporter and because of his job, the family moves a lot. Amber is not too thrilled about moving again since it’s hard going to a new school and making friends. But once the family gets to Hawaii, I think just the weather and surroundings make this move a good one.
Students who read this book should notice the similarities and differences between 1941 and the present. Notice what takes up people’s time back in 1941...no technology! The family doesn’t even have a television. The closest to any technology is their radio. Mom loves to cook and the family has dinner parties. Dad likes to get guests’ opinions and may possibly use their ideas for articles.
Once the Pearl Harbor attack occurs, things obviously are different. Since there is no school, Amber volunteers with her mom at the hospital.
The Japanese people who lived on the island were treated badly. Amber’s new Japanese friend, Kame, is having a hard time. Her father was taken away by the FBI, not seen or heard from again.
Other things that readers will find out about living in Hawaii: windows on the homes had to be blacked out so no light could get through. Cars’ headlights had to be painted so it was very hard driving at night. People had to build bomb shelters. Gas masks had to be taken everywhere. -
I wanted to like this book so much h because I enjoy historical reads, however the concept just wasn't there. It read as more of a familial read and they tossed in the idea of Pearl harbor. I read about the father, a journalist, who constantly uprooted his family to wherever the next news story might be. It seemed as though the main character, Amber Billow, was a complainant character. Instead of discussing the affects and effects on her and her family it was more of her complaining about moving, new schools, new friends, the war, etc. It was like Pearl harbor was an afterthought and really could've gone more in detail about life before, during, and after war. However, it didn't. The ending was also rushed and I feel it could've had a better lead in. I did find it entertaining enough to read because I love the series.
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December 7, 1941 "a date which will live in infamy."
This fictional book takes you into the life of a young girl living through these horrendous events and a look into the lives of the people after. I read this years and years ago as a young girl myself, the same age as the diary writer and enjoyed it then. This book is told in such a way that you experience the emotional trauma and I was moved to tears. A very dark time in American History indeed.
This is a short book, but being childrens fiction you should expect that. I was surprised how much I was moved by the story however with it being childrens fiction. I enjoyed the history at the end of the book and it was evident the author did his research.
This was a great way to kick start re-reading the Dear America books of my childhood and I highly recommend this book to people of all ages.
