Heroes

Heroes
By Ken Mochizuki
Illustrated by Dom Lee

Heroes is a story that is set in the early 1960’s, which I figured out with a contextual clue- the main character, Donne, talks about how there was a new way on TV in a country called Vietnam. (Pg. 10, Mochizuki, 1995). The reason I chose to include this book in my set of texts was because I felt as though it included a piece of history that was not that far in the past. It wasn’t a folktale, but a story about not only Donnie, the main character’s life, but about something our parents or grandparents went through. One of the first pages in the book, before the story starts, is an author’s note about all of the “American of Asian and Pacific Islander descent served in the armed forces of the United States during World War II”. (Author’s note, Mochizuki, 1995) This is useful because it gives the reader a little bit of background on many Asian American’s role in WWII.

The main theme of the story was acceptance. Donnie is a little boy who is Asian and plays with a group of boys from his school. Every day they play war, and Donnie is always the bad guy. He doesn’t want to play war with them unless he can prove that he truly isn’t the bad guy, although he looks like them. His dad and uncle fought in the war, but since they won’t ever talk about it, Donnie is left to always be the bad guy. (Mochizuki, 1995).

Although this story is set in the past, the idea of acceptance is still a problem that goes on in all societies, school or older. The story of Donnie is a great example of how cruel and blunt children can be, but in the end, how they can learn to accept their peers no matter what they look like. The book also does a great job of showing how uneasy a lot of soldiers were to show their story after the war, but in a way that a child reader would understand.

The text is on the left side of the page; the picture is always on the right. Some of the pages have more in depth and longer text, which makes me think this novel is good for older children, such as children who are not just beginning readers, but a little more advanced. Although, I read it to the children in my daycare who are ages 2-4, and they enjoyed the story because of the idea of “good guys” and “bad guys” and how Donnie’s friends were mean, but then they learned about Donnie and were nice.

The illustrations are more life-like compared to the other books in my set, with more texture, much like they were drawn with pencil. The colors are darker, with more browns, blacks, and beiges. Dom Lee, the illustrator, didn’t win any awards for this book, but did in fact win an APALA award for “Illustration in Children’s Literature” for the 04/05-award year. The author, Ken, is not from Japan, although his grandparents are. I think with this information, he can be considered an insider because he grew up with an insider's perspective on the culture, not to mention this story may have been the sort of story that might have actually happened to his grandparents.

Overall, Heroes is story that has a theme in it that is still present in current society. It is not only a story that revolves around an event in American history, but gives a new perspective that children might not have been exposed to before. It would be a great book to include in a Social Studies or American History class to make up for the otherwise underrepresented Asian American’s position in America during this time.



Mochizuki, Ken. Heroes. New York, NY: Lee & Low Books Inc., 1995.

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