George Takei Shares ‘They Called Us Enemy’ With School Librarians
by James Ferguson
This Summer, Top Shelf Productions will release George Takei’s memoir, They Called Us Enemy. Co-written by Justin Eisinger and Steven Scott and illustrated by Harmony Becker, the young adult graphic novel follows Takei’s firsthand experience in childhood as one of 120,000 Japanese Americans forced into interment camps during World War II. This past week, Takei visited New York to deliver the keynote address at School Library Journal’s 14th annual Leadership Summit.
Takei said:
Next year, we will put it in your hands, you librarians, to build the future of America, to inform the young people who will become the leaders of our future that we have a glorious history… but we should also be mindful of some of the horrible mistakes that we made. As Americans, we all have a responsibility to build a better America.
For more information about the event, check out SLJ’s full recap.
They Called Us Enemy looks to be a powerful story in the vein of March from John Lewis. It’s set for release on July 16th, 2019 and it’s currently available for pre-order at a number of bookstores and Amazon.