“I had my chance.’ He said it, retiring from a lifetime of wanting. ‘I had my chance, and sometimes in life, there are no second chances. You look at what you have, not what you miss, and you move forward.”

This was a lovely little escape about a sliver of life during WWII that I haven’t explored. Henry is a Chinese-American living in Seattle after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He meets a young Japanese-American girl, Keiko, at school and they become fast friends. Through Henry’s eyes, we see the treatment Japanese-Americans endured during the war and how it spilled over to all Asian Americans. Despite their different settings and time periods, this book reminded me a lot of The Stationery Shop, which I also loved!

This book rekindled my interest in several areas: Asian tea culture (which I realize is a vast topic), books about the Asian American experience during WWII, books set in the Pacific Northwest, and cooking Japanese and Chinese food. It set my imagination on fire!