Dean Hughes

Forced into an internment camp at the start of World War II, eighteen-year-old Yuki enlists in the Army to fight for the Allies as a member of the "Four-Four-Two," a segregated Japanese American regiment.

Four-Four-Two

Jeni Enjaian

I found myself disappointed again. From the start, the book felt formulaic. At one point I looked at the jacket cover after I started reading the book and saw that Dean Hughes has written more than 80 books for young adults. That just confirmed what I already felt about the formulaic nature of the book. Every single author I know that churns out that many books has narratives that follow the same formula over and over again. I have never read any of Hughes' other works but I'm sure that if I were to pick up another of his books, I would likely find many things familiar.
Hughes never really inhabited Yuki. The reader never really had a chance to get to know him. The narrative jumped from a brief glimpse of the family in December 1941 when the father was arrested after Pearl Harbor to 1943 when Yuki and Shig enlisted and then a few months farther to when the boys shipped out to Europe. A better author could have included the information in those scenes as flashbacks, intricately woven into the narrative, making it much more compelling. Also, many of Yuki's (and other character's) reactions defy the typical suspension of disbelief, especially for a work of historical fiction.

I do not recommend this book, although I'm sure that many of my male students would enjoy it.

Four-Four-Two

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