Journal entries kept by Miss Hori's third grade class from March 8 to August 12, 1943 provide the springboard for an account of day-to-day life in the Topaz Relocation Center as it was experienced by Japanese-American children. Their brief, upbeat entries describing camp life stand in stark contrast to the grim realities described in the text and shown in the accompanying documentary black-and-white photographs. (Ages 8-14)

Based upon the diary of a third-grade class of Japanese-American children being held with their families in an internment camp during World War II, The Children of Topaz gives a detailed portrait of daily life in the camps where Japanese-Americans were taken during the war. There are many primary source documents including the children’s drawings, maps of the camp, and photographs depicting the harsh, wartime attitudes toward these families.