Like many stories, Amy’s begins long before she was born. Amy is an “all-American” young woman from Hawaii, but author Sherri L Smith and illustrator Christine Norrie start their graphic novel Pearl in 1886 in Japan, where Amy’s sosōbo (great-grandmother) is a pearl diver from Okinawa.
I loved the stories my family would tell about her.
Of mermaids and pirates and cities underwater…
And the pearl she found when she was a girl – it was round and perfect, the size of her fist.
I knew the stories were only half true, but I loved them just the same.
Amy’s great-grandmother meets a fisherman, they marry and have a son, whose own son moves to the United States before marrying Amy’s mother, whose own family had been in Hawaii for generations. With the opening chapter “Ama, Pearl Diver” set in Japan, Amy picks up the story in the second chapter, set in Hawaii in 1941.
Amy’s story was inspired by Rahna Reiko Rizzuto and her memoir Hiroshima in the Morning.
Like the chapter before it, the text is taut, but the spareness of words helps the reader to focus.
Back then, half the world was at war.
But, here in the United States….
My problems were nothing I couldn’t handle.
Smith’s words are set against Norrie’s illustrations of Amy and a friend grabbing a snack on a street corner and two Caucasian men pulling their eyes to taunt Amy. Amy glares before she and her friend walk away, their smiles and conversation returning.
Norrie’s illustrations take on a different feel from the opening chapter, which naturally emphasize water and nature, but the solo feature on the great-grandmother brings a different tone to that of the chapter focused on a teenaged Amy in 1941. Norrie’s illustrations continue to take on a slightly different feel with each chapter, but consistent throughout are her emotive characters and the details in their expressions.
When Amy’s sosōbo falls ill, Amy’s parents, who have just had a new baby, ask Amy to go to Japan to take care of her great-grandmother in their place. Having never been to Japan or away from her family, Amy travels alone to Japan and heads to her uncle’s family farm outside of Hiroshima.
She experiences culture shock (“at least the food tasted a bit like home,” Smith writes), but Amy connects with her grandmother, who shares her story of being a pearl diver. And then there is Pearl Harbor.
“In one instant… we were at war.”
Amy’s story was inspired by Rahna Reiko Rizzuto and her memoir Hiroshima in the Morning. Smith reached out to Rizzuto about creating a story for young readers that came from Rizzuto’s interviews with survivors of Pearl Harbor and after she agreed, Smith began working on what would become Pearl.
Featuring themes of identity and home, but also of family and friendship, Pearl examines Amy’s experience of being both Japanese and American. Pearl provides an opportunity for upper middle grade readers to see history from the perspective of someone their age, while also providing plenty of opportunities for discussion on the graphic novel’s larger themes.