Today is the last time Laura Iwasaki and her family will visit her grandfather's grave at the Manzanar War Relocation Camp before they move to Massachusetts.  Laura wants to say a special good-bye to her grandfather, who died while he and his family were interned at the camp, along with ten thousand other Japanese Americans, during World War II.

There is nothing much to see at Manzanar now; the barbed wire fence and guard towers are gone.  But Laura's father remembers the barracks and churches and the interrupted lives of the Americans confined within the camp's walls.  A story her father tells her helps Laura decide on the memento she wants to leave with the grandfather she never knew.  

Eve Bunting's tender story, evoked through Chris K. Soentpiet's vivid and intimate illustrations, recognizes a dark moment in history and reminds us of the resonating impact of war.

From the dust jacket