Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Author:  Jamie Ford
Published: 2009, Ballantine Books, ISBN 978-0345505346
Lexile Level:  850L
Classification: Fiction

Summary: 
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet tells the story of Henry Lee, a young American citizen growing up in Seattle in the 1940s.  He befriends Keiko, a young Japanese girl from his school.  Both of them are outcasts because of their races.  After they become friends (and after Japan attacks the U.S. at Pearl Harbor), Keiko and her family are forced to live in an internment camp.  Despite their strong feelings for each other, time and distance separates them until they reconnect much later in life.

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Language: 

• This book contains no profanity.
  

Drug and Alcohol Use: 

• There is one reference to an adult smoking a cigarette.
  

Violence and Crime: 

• Classmates bully Henry because of his race.  Henry gets in a couple of boyish fights to defend his friend.  
  

Sexual Content:

• Henry and his friend share their first kiss.  There is no other sexual content.
  

Other: 

• Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet discusses the internment of Japanese people (both citizens and non-citizens) during World War II based solely on their race.  I doubt anyone really considers that to be a proud moment in U.S. history, but those who disagree probably won’t like this book.  

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